SanDisk Introduces 1GB XD-Picture Card

xD card uses rejoice - Sandisk has announced the availability of a 1G version of the xD-Picture card. The announcement follows the introduction last month of 10 new, four-megapixel and higher digital cameras by Olympus and Fuji that are fully compatible with the 1GB xD-Picture Card. SanDisk is expected to start shipping the M Series, 1GB card in April at a suggested retail price of $139.99 in the U.S.


Source: Shuttertalk

Pretec Announces C-Flash Memory Card Standard

Another day, another memory card standard. Pretec have come out with a new memory card and module - C-Flash . With a physical size of 17mm x 12mm x 1.0mm, about 1/3 the volume of RS-MMC or miniSD, C-Flash is one of the smallest form factor flash memory cards in the world.

The C-Flash will have capacity up to 2048GB (500 times of MMC capacity) and transfer speed up to 120MB/s (10 times of SD speed). Pretec will also offer various adapters for C-Flash such as SD, miniSD, MMC, RS-MMC and USB; users can buy only one flash card, C-Flash, and at the same time be able to use different mobile devices such as DSC, mobile phone, MP3, PDA, etc. with various interfaces (SD, miniSD, MMC, RS-MMC, USB).


Source: Shuttertalk

New Memory Card Format by Taiwanese Consortium

By Mike Clendenin
Courtesy of EE Times
24 January 2005 (8:26 p.m. GMT)

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A Taiwanese technology consortium is putting the finishing touches on a new memory card format that it says is compatible with the popular Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard formats already in the market but offers speeds twice that of USB 2.0 at a cheaper price.

The Taiwanese card format is dubbed M¼-Card, which stands for micro ¼ card, and it is backed by a handful of local card makers, system designers and IC design houses. Also backing the effort is a quasi-government research group, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which coordinated the effort.

The group has formed a M¼-Card Alliance to promote the card, and to coordinate further technical development of the format. Its membership is currently limited to the original members who conducted research related to the technology, but it is preparing to open the group to at least 40 other local companies that have expressed interest in the format.

This week, while engineers rush to finish documenting the spec, the alliance will meet with representatives from the MultiMediaCard Association, which oversees the open-standard MMC format and is interested in combining the two specs and discussing cooperation. The discussions will happen in Taiwan, but an MMCA spokesman declined to confirm the meeting or comment on the new format.

The M¼-Card Alliance has not engaged with the SD Card Association, of which all but one are members (PDC and ITRI sit on its board of directors).

Backers are also claiming that its I/O is simpler to design with than that for SD cards. "The SD I/O is not so easily used. It requires a lot of effort to develop, especially in terms of software," said Gordon Yu, president of C-One Technology, which sells flash-based cards under the brand name Pretec and is a member of the alliance.

Simplicity derives from the use of USB protocols for the digital portion. But the speed is twice that of USB, and the low-power consumption is only one-third or one-fourth that of USB 2.0, said Liu Chih-yuan, who directed the project at ITRI and is chairman of the M¼-Card Alliance. "That's our strength. It's a very low-power, high speed USB compatible interface. So we are complementary to the MMC."

The alliance plans to introduce the card in various stages this year, with demonstrations early on and full-fledged functionality coming by year's end. Cards based on the format would be competitively priced with MMC-based cards, according to the alliance.

Card vendors are likely to save money on the controller, which is about 5,000 logic gates, if only IP for the M¼-Card format is included.

Liu estimated a 10 percent savings on a controller that sells for about $1 today. If device and card makers want to support all standards, including USB 2.0, the cost would be about 30 percent higher, Liu said, and a royalty would be paid to the SD patent holders.

Even a scenario where a device or card supports all the open standards — MMC, USB 2.0 and M¼-Card — the gate count would still be around 25,000, so the cost would still be higher.

Sandisk Announces SD Card with Built-in USB

Hitting back at Lexar's recently announced USB flashcard, Sandisk have announced an innovative SD(TM) flash memory card with built-in USB connectivity. In addition be being used in SD card slots, the card flips open to reveal a standard USB 2.0 plug which can be used to transfer data between devices without the need for an SD card reader. As such, the SD card can also serve a dual function as a USB flash drive.



The first products to be released by SanDisk with this breakthrough technology are scheduled to be introduced in Q1, 2005. At that time, SanDisk is expected to introduce capacities as high as one gigabyte.

Source: Shuttertalk

Flash Memory Capacity Increases while Size Shrinks

Scientists at Infineon Technologies AG, Germany, have built the world's smallest non-volatile flash memory cell. The new memory cell measures just 20 nanometers - approximately 5,000 times thinner than a human hair.

Given that all manufacturing-related challenges - including that of lithography - can be resolved, the new development would make nonvolatile memory chips with a capacity of 32 Gbit possible within a few years. That is eight times the capacity of what is currently available in the market.

Nonvolatile flash memories are becoming increasingly popular as mass storage media for devices such as digital cameras, camcorders and USB sticks. The most advanced nonvolatile flash memory devices available today can permanently store one or two bits of information per memory cell without a supply voltage.

Such memories have a feature size of around 90 nanometers, and shrinking this feature size using typical techniques to half that size has posed many problems because of nanoscale physical effects. In particular, fabricating 20 nanometer-sized flash memory cells has been considered almost impossible because these physical effects would make the memory cells extremely unreliable.

The Infineon researchers created a three-dimensional structure with a fin for the transistor that acts as the heart of the memory cell. The geometry minimizes unwanted effects and improves electrostatic control compared to today's flat transistors.

Called a FinFET (Fin Field Effect Transistor), the Infineon device stores the electrons that carry the information in a nitride layer that lies electrically isolated between the silicon fin and the gate electrode. 8 nanometers thin, the fin is controlled by the 20 nanometer-wide gate electrode.

According to Infineon the FinFET is extremely durable and possesses excellent electrical characteristics. For example, the most advanced memories on the market today need approximately 1,000 electrons in order to reliably remember one bit. The new Infineon memory cell uses only 100 electrons; an additional 100 electrons stores a second bit in the same transistor. 100 electrons roughly correspond to the number of electrons in a single gold atom.

Details about the new flash memory were presented at a post-deadline paper at the IEEE’s International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco yesterday.

Samsung Announces Thumbnail-sized MMCmicro Memory Card

At the rate that memory cards are shrinking, we might soon be more in danger of physically losing cards than losing data. The latest card from Samsung, the MMCmicro memory card is smaller than a thumbnail and is one-third the size of the reduced-size multimedia cards (RS-MMC). Measuring only 12x14x1.1mm, the card can read at 10MB per second and write at 7MB per second, and will initially be sold in 32, 64 and 128 Mbyte sizes.



Aimed squarely at the mobile phone market, Samsung will begin mass production of its thumbnail-sized memory cards in early 2005.

Source: Shuttertalk

Lexar Introduces the USB Flashcard Design

Lexar Media have announced a new USB card form factor, which is being proposed as an open and free industry standard. The card will function as a plug and play USB drive. The USB card form factor is volumetrically similar to a SD card, and is based on the USB Type A connector. It measures a mere 12 millimeters wide, 4.5 millimeters high and 31.75 millimeters long.

Lexar's USB FlashCard will be the first product based on the new form factor. The USB FlashCard will offer mass USB storage and universal plug and play connectivity with all modern operating systems via the USB interface. Lexar plans to introduce Full-Speed USB versions in 16MB, 32MB and 64MB capacities as well as Hi-Speed USB versions in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB and 1GB capacities with a high performance 60MB/s interface speed in 2005.



Lexar is working with connector manufacturers to offer an extended USB Type A socket to be used in consumer electronics devices such as digital still cameras and handheld computers. The USB FlashCard sockets would accommodate the USB FlashCard inside of a camera similar in use to other forms of flash memory cards.

Now imagine if all camera manufacturers adopted this format -- we could do away with card readers!

Source: Shuttertalk

Lexar Offers Royalty-Free Licensing for ActiveMemory Technology

You may or may not have heard of Lexar's ActiveMemory technology when it was announced PhotoKina, but Lexar have now made plans to license the technology on a royalty free basis to other manufacturers.

The concept behind ActiveMemory is this -- "ActiveMemory reserves a small piece of flash memory outside the normal DOS file system on a card. Application parameters and settings can be stored in this area and will not be lost or deleted." Applications for this include saving custom settings on cards which will be preserved after the data portion of the card is formatted.

Licensees to the technology will also be provided with a unique vendor code to access the protected portions of the memory system. Active Memory licenses will also be offered on a royalty bearing basis to digital media manufacturers who wish to incorporate the benefits of the ActiveMemory System in their product offerings.

Source: Shuttertalk

Toshiba Flash Memory Cards in iPods?

Toshiba has reportedly agreed to supply Apple with flash memory chips--presumably for the much-rumored flash iPod. China Daily reports that Yasuo Morimoto, senior executive vice president at Toshiba, has confirmed his company will start selling the memory chips to Apple "early next year." Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich expects Apple to introduce a cheaper flash memory-based iPod at Macworld Expo in January. Toshiba currently supplies Apple with the 1.8-inch hard drives that the company uses in its 4G iPods.

Find iPod accessories at Mr.Gadget Australia!

MMC Standard Accepted in China

SUNOL, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Nov. 30, 2004 -- Membership Continues Rapid Expansion, Including Intel and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications

The MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) recently held a very successful exhibition at the Oct. 26-30 PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2004 and a MMCA Technology Conference in Beijing, to introduce the MMCplus(TM) and MMCmobile(TM) Cards to the Chinese market.

The Technology Conference held on Nov. 1 was well attended by representatives from China's telecommunication industries and the media. Event highlights include keynotes by Mr. Zhao Bo, Deputy Director General of Division of Computer & System Engineering, Department of Electronics and IT Products of the Ministry of Information Industries (MII), and Dr. Chen Qinfang, Vice President of China Putan Institute of Technology and Team Leader of China Mobile Storage Device Standard Work Group. Representatives of China Mobile and China Unicom also attended, and the event received widespread coverage in China.

According to Danny Lin, Vice President of ATP and MMCA Marketing Committee Vice-Chairman, "We were delighted to have the opportunity to introduce our new MMCmobile and MMCplus Cards for mobile phones and digital imaging markets in China, and to see such tremendous media response in a wide range of coverage from newspapers, magazines, televisions and online. In addition, the response from the network operators and mobile phone OEMs to MMCmobile and MMCplus Cards, due to their open standard and lowest cost solution for data storage in mobile devices, was truly overwhelming."

Immediately following the Technology Conference, the MMCA held its first Fall General Meeting and Board Election in Beijing, during which a full slate of new marketing, technical and compliance issues were considered.

Proposals included encompassing the ATA protocol for HDD on the MMC interface for ultra-small hard disk drive (HDD) applications in mobile devices. A sub-committee, led by members from Nokia, Marvell and Samsung, was formed to study the matter.

There was also further discussion about supporting secure contents and the mobile network operators' and content owners' technical and business requirements. The newly elected MMCA Board for 2005 is well-represented by leading mobile handset, computer and camera makers, flash memory card and SIM card manufacturers and semiconductor companies. The 2005 board members are: ATP Electronics, Gemplus, Hewlett-Packard, Infineon Flash, Lexar Media, Micron Technology, Nokia Mobile Phones, Power Digital Card, Renesas Technology, Samsung Electronics and Silicon Motion.

The newly elected MMCA Board for 2005 is well-represented by leading mobile handset, computer and camera makers, flash memory card and SIM card manufacturers and semiconductor companies. The 2005 board members are: ATP Electronics, Gemplus, Hewlett-Packard, Infineon Flash, Lexar Media, Micron Technology, Nokia Mobile Phones, Power Digital Card, Renesas Technology, Samsung Electronics and Silicon Motion.

Re-elected to continue in their present positions are MMCA Chairman Yves Leonard (Samsung) and President Juergen Hammerschmitt (Infineon) who have impressively guided the association in the recent acceleration in market recognition and adoption of the MMC standards.

Membership growth:

Membership in the Association continues to grow significantly, with over 190 companies now, which is nearly double that of a year ago.

New members include handset manufacturers (Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and Konka), Smart Card suppliers (Oberthur Card Systems and Giesecke & Devrient) and HDD and HDD-controller manufacturers (Seagate, Toshiba, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Matsushita, Marvell, Agere, and others), as well as Intel and Denali Software. In addition to Oberthur, BYD Company Ltd. and Kingston Technologies joined as Executive Members.
"We're entering 2005 with a strong board, increased membership, a growing global market for the MMC standard and positive response to our new brand and logos," said Yves Leonard, MMCA Board Chairman. "It was an exciting year for the MMCA, and the momentum will continue into 2005."

About MultiMediaCards
MultiMediaCards are the small, removable solid-state memory cards designed especially for mobile phones and digital imaging, among other applications. These convenient, reliable, rugged and lightweight standardized data carriers store up to 1 Gbyte, or approximately 640,000 book pages. MultiMediaCards use ROM or flash technology for read-only applications, and flash technology for read/write applications. The cards are fast for excellent system performance; energy efficient for prolonged battery life in portable products; and cost-efficient for use in systems sold at consumer price points. They also have an easy-to-install serial interface.
About The MMCA (MultiMediaCard Association - www.mmca.org)

The MMCA is the open standard memory card organization, promoting worldwide adoption of a postage-stamp size, removable storage card designed especially for mobile phones and digital imaging. Founded in 1998 with 14 companies, the MMCA has grown rapidly and now has 190+ members worldwide, representing all branches of mobile electronic applications, including semiconductor suppliers, software vendors and manufacturers of low power devices for storing and retrieving digital information.

The MMCA develops and regulates open industry standards that define all types of MultiMediaCards, ensuring full interoperability. The organization charges no royalties for using the membership-driven standard, although a nominal license fee is included in the membership dues. Specifications are available to members from the organization's website, and can be purchased for $1,000 by non-members. MultiMediaCards are becoming the industry standard for compact removable storage media across multiple host platforms and markets, including cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, MP-3 digital music players, portable video games and laptop computers. The MMCA mailing address is P.O. Box 303, Sunol, CA 94586; Ph: 925-417-0127; Fax: 925-417-0128. More information is at www.mmca.org.

MMCplus(TM) and MMCmobile(TM) are trademarks of MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA).
Company/product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are used for identification purpose only.