bandwidth of PC Card CompactFlash adapter

[casper]

I bought a digital camera with SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash 2GB
card and a SanDisk Ultra CompactFlash PC Card Adapter. When I use the
adapter to transfer photos from the CF card to my notebook, it does so
at a speed of almost 400 KB/sec. The CF card is capable of 20 MB/sec.

Is 400 KB/sec a normal speed for a PCMCIA slot? It seems slow to me, I
have the feeling that using the USB cable that came with the camera is
faster than the PC Card adapter.

I am using Windows Vista on a Lenovo T61 notebook.

Any help would be appreciated!
Casper

[dhi...@sonic.net]

casper <caspe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I bought a digital camera with SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash 2GB
> card and a SanDisk Ultra CompactFlash PC Card Adapter. When I use the
> adapter to transfer photos from the CF card to my notebook, it does so
> at a speed of almost 400 KB/sec. The CF card is capable of 20 MB/sec.

> Is 400 KB/sec a normal speed for a PCMCIA slot? It seems slow to me, I
> have the feeling that using the USB cable that came with the camera is
> faster than the PC Card adapter.

The adapter you have should be capable of as much as 1500 KB/sec.
Which is not great compared to the CF card itself, but is better than
what you're actually getting. I can't explain why the performance
you're seeing is quite that bad, maybe there is an issue with the
Vista PCMCIA driver. PCMCIA cards like this one are 16-bit devices,
they have a fairly low maximum performance and require the undivided
attention of the CPU while they're moving data.

Delkin and Lexar sell 32-bit CardBus CF adapters that should perform
much better, and can move data without involving the CPU directly.

Here's a comparison, in this case they see 4-6 MB/sec from a CardBus
adapter, versus 1.2 MB/sec for a PCMCIA adapter.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0310/03102103delkincardbustest.asp

-- Dave

[casper]

On Mar 24, 2:51 pm, dhi...@sonic.net wrote:

Thanks, Dave. I ordered the Delkin Card. Hope it works better!

Casper