- Hardcard
A hardcard (sometimes written HardCard) is a
hard disk drive which combines the hard drive controller with the hard disk drive itself. The resulting device fits into anexpansion slot on apersonal computer , without using adrive bay . [ [http://computing-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Hardcard Hardcard definition of Hardcard in the Free Online Encyclopedia ] ] Due to their physical bulk they would typically occupy 1.5 expansion slots in anIBM PC or compatible, with the drive itself overhanging the adjacent slot. However because the drive was usually located at the oposite end to the connector it was sometimes possible to fit a short half-length card into this slot. The bulk could also restrict which slots could be used, exluding those too close to the case or other internal components.The term “hardcard” can refer generically to any device which fits into an expansion slot on a computer (such as an
ISA , PCI, orPC card connected solution), however, Quantum Corporation was the maker of Plus HardCards in the mid-1980s. Today, such items are not used in favor of standard hard disk controllers andcomputer bus standards, including ISA,SATA , andSCSI buses which are used to connect hard disk drives to acomputer .References
ee also
*
hard disk drive —a piece ofdata storage technology which is capable of storing large amounts ofdata .
*IDE ,SATA ,SCSI —standards for hard disk drive communication with computers in common use as of2007 .
*ISA , PCI,PC card — standards for the expansion of a computer.
* Quantum Corporation—manufacturer of the Plus HardCard.
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