PCIC(4)

💖 PCIC(4) — the PC Card bridge driver, bestie edition 💖

okay so this is pcic(4) from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, and no cap it's giving "vintage hardware whisperer" energy. sit down, grab a 🍓, we're doing this.

✨ NAME ✨

pcic — the PC Card bridge driver 🫶

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

device pcic
device pccard

two little lines, that's it, that's the whole summoning ritual ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So the pcic driver is out here providing support for the older ISA and non-Yenta PCI PC Card bridges. lowkey a legacy icon. 💅

Basically it handles most ExCA devices that are attached to the ISA bus, plus those PCI devices that just… do not conform to the Yenta specification. (they're doing their own thing, and honestly? respect.)

The following ISA devices, or true clones, are supported in the current code. periodt. 👑

• Intel i82365SL Step A
• Intel i82365SL Step B
• Intel i82365SL Step C — Intel's original 16-bit PC Card controller. the blueprint fr fr
• Intel i82365SL-DF — Intel's last version of this device. 3.3V support was added, so slay for that 🌈
• VLSI 82C146 — an older VLSI part with some issues on some machines 😭 (it's giving "great personality, occasional glitches")
• Cirrus Logic PD-6710
• Cirrus Logic PD-6720
• Cirrus Logic PD-6722 — Cirrus Logic's pcic controller. compatible with the i82365SL Step C, with the addition of a different 3.3V control.
• Ricoh RF5C296
• Ricoh RF5C396 — Ricoh's PC Card bridge chips. these are compatible with the i82365SL Step C, but with yet another different 3.3V control. (everyone wanted their own 3.3V moment, iykyk 💀)
• Vadem 365
• Vadem 465 — compatible with i82365SL Step C.
• Vadem 468
• Vadem 469 — like the earlier Vadem models, but with Vadem's own, incompatible, 3.3V control system. not them being different on purpose 🙈
• IBM PCIC — IBM's clone of the original i82365SL part, with its own ID register value. has no 3.3V ability. it's giving "no thoughts, head empty" but for voltage.

Many other vendors made parts in this arena, but most of them were compatible with one of the above chipsets. so if your chip isn't named here, bestie, it's probably one of these in a little disguise 🧚

The following PCI pcmcia bridges are supported:

• Cirrus Logic PD6729
• Cirrus Logic PD6730
• O2micro OZ6729
• O2micro OZ6730

💀 BUGS 💀

This does not work at all at the moment.

that's it. that's the whole bug report. not me reading that and gasping 😭💀 literally zero notes, it just doesn't work. iconic in the worst way possible.

🎀 a lil sign-off 🎀

this page is from Debian, dated July 9, 2002 — so yeah, she's vintage, she's archived, she's a whole historical artifact. sending love to everyone out there keeping ancient PC Card bridges alive, you're the main character 💜✨🦋