NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR CONTINUES PCMCIA LEADERSHIP WITH NEW MULTIFUNCTION I/O INTERFACE CHIP

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 24, 1995 -- National Semiconductor strengthened its position in the PCMCIA market by announcing its second generation standard multifunction I/O interface chip. The National InfoMover(tm) PCM16C02VJG is fully compliant with the recently announced PC Card Multifunction Specification from the PCMCIA Standards Committee. The multifunction interface enables any two functions to be designed in to one PC card and operate concurrently. Some examples of these functions are networking, pager, multimedia, Flash memory, sound, and fax/modem.

The National InfoMover PCM16C02 is the second release in a series of PCMCIA interface products from the company. The device is targeted at general multifunction applications but can also operate in single-function designs. It also incorporates necessary logic to interface seamlessly with NAND Flash memory (which National also makes) for multifunction card designs supporting memory applications.

"PC card developers and manufacturers are striving to implement new functions and combinations of functions onto their cards, as well as expand into new markets," said Bill Hall, director of PCMCIA Products at National Semiconductor. "The InfoMover PCM16C02 allows them to shorten development time and improve time to market by focusing their resources on the proprietary areas of their products and not the PC card interface design."

The National InfoMover PCM16C02 was designed specifically for the multifunction interface requirements, and can also be utilized as a single-function interface device. This allows companies that want to offer a family of single- and multifunction cards the ability to reduce the number of different parts they need to purchase and stock.

The market research firm AP Research projects that there will be approximately 19 million portable and desktop personal computers with PC Card slots by 1996. PC Card slots and silicon are projected to be included in over 95 percent of all portable computers by 1997. Today's portable PCs incorporate one or two Type II PC Card slots, limiting the user to two PC Card functions per system. Multifunction cards will expand this capability to four functions, allowing for better utilization of the card slots and giving users the flexibility to customize their systems.

National has been working with the PCMCIA Standards Organization to define and develop standards for both single-function and multifunction PC card interfaces and Cardbus technologies. National is developing standard cardside and hostside PC Card and Cardbus interface silicon products. These products are part of National's overall PC Card strategy of providing leading-edge cardside/hostside products that allow the optimization of the PC Card/Cardbus slot.

"When PC Card manufacturers asked for the ability to combine functionalities, we delivered," said Bill Hall. "Now we're working with industry leaders like Intel and SystemSoft to make Cardbus a reality. That's our commitment to PC Card and system designers."

InfoMover is a trademark of National Semiconductor Corporation.

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