Mini PCI cards for the PC card slot on a t40?

[megascribe]

What kind of Mini PCI cards will work in the PC card slot on my t40? Could I get a firewire connector or a usb 3 hub?

[RealBlackStuff]

They are PCMCIA cards (e.g. your wifi card is a MiniPCI card type)
Any PCMCIA card will fit in there.

[moronoxyd]

Actually, those are CardBus slots (32bit). Most, if not all Thinkpads support CardBus since the mid 1990's.
You can use the older, 16-bit PCMCIA cards/PCCards in a CardBus slot, but not vice versa.

CardBus cards can be identified by the metal piece atop of the end with the pinholes (see pic, top right is CardBus, bottom left is PCMCIA/PCCard).


There are CardBus cards with Firewire connectors, but you'll probably not find USB 3.0 cards.
Cardbus has a maximum throughput of 132 MB/s, with is notably less than USB 3.0 supports.

There are ExpressCards with USB 3.0 support, and you could use those with a ExpressCard to CardBus adaptor in your T40, but you wouldn't really benefit from the improved speed of USB 3.0.