AirPort 802.11b Card

The original model, known as simply AirPort Card, was a re-branded Lucent WaveLAN/Orinoco Gold PC card, in a modified housing that lacked the integrated antenna. It was designed to be capable of being user-installable. It was also modified in such a way that it could not be used in a regular PCMCIA slot (At the time it was significantly cheaper than the official WaveLAN/Orinoco Gold card). An AirPort card adapter is required to use this card in the slot loading iMacs.


AirPort Extreme 802.11g cards

Corresponding with the release of the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the AirPort Extreme Card became available as an option on the current models. It is based on a Broadcom 802.11g chipset and is housed in a custom enclosure that is mechanically proprietary, but is electrically compatible with the Mini PCI standard. It was also capable of being user-installed.

Variants of the user installable AirPort Extreme Card are marked A-1010 (early North American spec), A-1026 (current North American spec), A-1027 (Europe/Asia spec (additional channels)) and A-1095 (unknown).

A different 802.11g card was included in the last iteration of the PowerPC-based PowerBooks and iBooks. A major distinction for this card was that it was the first "combo" card that included both 802.11g as well as Bluetooth. It was also the first card that was not user-installable. It was again a custom form factor, but was still electrically a Mini PCI interface for the Broadcom WLAN chip. A separate USB connection was used for the on-board Bluetooth chip.

The AirPort Extreme (802.11g) card was discontinued in January 2009.