@Felthry Basically? USB supplanted it.
@LexYeen PCMCIA (which was just miniaturized PATA) could do 133 MB/s, while USB 2.0 high speed was limited to 60 MB/s (480 Mbps), so it seems like USB wasn't quite fast enough to really supplant PCMCIA until USB 3 came out in the 2010s, though
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@LexYeen I just want laptops to have expansion slots like how desktops have PCIe slots.
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@Felthry Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-[48 hours later]-aaaaaaame.
@Felthry No worries at all, I know how sometimes the words just kinda come out and can't be stopped.
As for why something technically inferior would become dominant? Ease of use and cross-compatibility, IMO. If you wanted to use a PCMCIA cards in a desktop you needed a special expansion card, and laptops would need the whole-ass slot built in. Meanwhile, USB uses less physical space and is more broadly available thanks to that.