Patent ID: 7152127

Claim:
A system for a computing system, comprising: a docking device that interfaces with the computing system via a cable; and a multi-interface card with a switching module and a processor; wherein the docking device receives the multi-interface card and detects if the multi-interface card is a standard or a non-standard PCMCIA card, and the switching module is coupled to at least a fire wire interface, USB interface, serial interface and a PCMCIA interface; and when the processor detects a standard PCMCIA signal the multi-interface card operates as a standard PCMCIA card and if an input signal is a non-standard PCMCIA signal, then switching module couples the multi-interface card to an interface based on the non-standard PCMCIA signal; wherein the non-standard PCMCIA signal is generated via a pin which is grounded for a standard PCMCIA card; and if a non-multi-interface card is inserted in the docking device, the docking device generates a signal so that the non-multi-interface card is not powered up.