Xircom, Inc.

Xirom, Inc.

James G Hughes

Gerald Raymond Pepper

Ian A Laity

Donald C Barrett

John N Otey

Frank McLinn

Son Nam Doan

A PC Card is provided which can be inserted in the PCMCIA slot of a host system either right side up or inverted. The card includes a front portion conforming to the PCMCIA Type II thickness standard and a rear portion conforming to the PCMCIA Type III thickness standard. The card is so configured that two cards can be stacked in complementary fashion and inserted in a host system Type III slot, one card thus being connected to one of the 68-pin slot connectors and the other card being connected to the other 68-pin slot connector. Circuitry is provided for use in an invertible PC Card for electronically detecting the presence, type and orientation of the card, for managing power supply voltages and for directing, or, if the card is inverted, for redirecting the signals appearing at the various pins of the card connector as necessary. Such circuitry comprises an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) incorporating, besides the card function circuits, an orientation detection state machine and a signal mutliplexer.

PC cards with integrated I/O communication receptacles

A system and method for incorporating graphic and text elements on a surface of an article by employing an ablative etching device, such as a laser etcher, that is capable of etching the elements into a coating on the article's surface having at least two layers of material. The ablative etching device etches into the coating layers to a depth that removes the material of the outermost, exposed layer, but which leaves intact at least a portion of the depth of an underlying layer. As a result the graphics and text take on the color of the particular underlying layer exposed by the etching process. By making the colors of the underlying layer or layers contrast the color of the outermost, exposed layer, the graphics and text elements become readily readable against the background color of the outermost layer. Further, the graphic and text elements can be formed as an array having individual holes etched into the coating layers, as well as un-etched locations. By alternating the color exhibited by adjacent locations in the array, it can be made to appear to a viewer that the associated graphic and text elements are a color different from the colors actually exhibited by the adjacent array locations. The shade of the color associated with a portion of the graphic and text elements can also be made to appear lighter or darker to a viewer.

Etching of multi-layered coated surfaces to add graphic and text elements to an article

A PC card comprising a housing including top and bottom cover panels encloses at least one heat-generating circuit component, typically an IC device or package. A heat spreading element, which may be in the form of a copper sheet, is disposed in conduction heat transfer relationship with the at least one circuit component and at least one of the housing covers, the heat spreading element being adapted to receive heat from the at least one circuit component, to spread the heat uniformly and to transfer it to the at least one housing cover panel. From there, the heat is dissipated into the surrounding environment.

PC card with thermal management

Growing community of inventors

Simi Valley, CA, United States of America

James G Hughes