5Gbit ExpressCard slots coming next year

A new version of the ExpressCard standard to be demonstrated next month will give compliant notebook expansion slots transfer rates of 5Gbits/sec – 10 times faster than a USB2 link.

The ExpressCard 2.0 standard essentially extends the PCI Express 2.0 bus (and the new USB 3.0 bus) to an expansion slot capable of meeting the needs of streaming media and video adapters, fast solid-state drives, and Sata adapters for external hard disks.

ExpressCards were intended to supersede the old PCMCIA (aka PC Card) slots but have become less common because of the popularity and smaller size of USB2 jacks.

The new version, announced in March, will be 10 times faster than its predecessor, version 1.2. It incorporates the new USB3 Superspeed specification giving 5Gbits/sec theoretical throughput, or 3.2Gbits/sec (400Mbytes/sec) after factoring in protocol overheads.

It will be formally launched at the Computex trade show in Taiwan on June 3. Products using it are expected to appear next year.