Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Douglas McCallum

Michael S Bender

Duong M Vo

Charles F Patton, Jr

A portable PCMCIA interface for a host computer having a system bus. In one embodiment, the host computer is a SPARC based computer having an SBus and running the UNIX operating system. The PCMCIA interface provides a user application with access to a PCMCIA card. In this embodiment, the PCMCIA interface includes software and hardware components. The software component includes a hardware-independent portion and a hardware-dependent portion. By implementing the software in a suitable high level language such as 'C', the software can be easily ported to other hardware platforms by merely adapting the hardware-dependent portion. The hardware component includes an ASIC coupled between the system bus and a couple of PCMCIA sockets. In some embodiments, the hardware also includes a 5 volt to 12 volt DC--DC converter between the system bus and the PCMCIA sockets.

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Louisville, CO, United States of America

Douglas McCallum