Cards in a flash
01 October 2006
NAND flash in multimedia and secure digital cards has increased the capacity and capabilities of cards today and for the next generation.
The number of memory cards, according to Dataquest, will grow by five per cent in the five year period between 2005 and 2010, with the multimedia card market due to experience 17 per cent growth and the micro multimedia card market looking forward to an expected 95 per cent growth during the same period.
Similarly, high-density memory cards are expected to show ‘substantial growth’ according to Semico. The format is increasingly used in computing, mobile phones and multimedia devices, as data files are joined by audio and video files that have to be filed, stored and transferred. The market research company predicts that, worldwide, the high-density memory card market will increase from 115million units this year to 750million units by 2009.
For example, digital cameras currently account for around 11.5million 4Gbyte cards, a number expected to more than triple by 2009 to reach nearly 39million, according to Brain Child in a report last year. Analyst iSuppli reckon that the lower capacity cards will give way to increased capacities as 1Gbyte and above cards should experience 180 per cent growth between 2005 and 2009, while 512M and below will increase eight per cent in the same period.
Samsung (www.samsung.com) has combined four 4Gbit NAND flash devices in its 2Gbyte MultiMediaCard (MCCmicro), described as the smallest, fastest and highest capacity memory card for mobile phones. It measures 12 x 14 x 1.1mm, operates at 1.8 and 3.3V and has increased the transmission speed of any removable memory card, 3.5 times faster than other cards, according to the company. The card can store 12 hours of mobile video and can download three hours of video in less than two minutes. With an adapter, it can be plugged into any multimedia card slot.
Samsung claims the company’s MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash memory technology used in its MMC creates the highest density cards for portable electronic devices. The company introduced the MMCplus card based on its 8Gbit NAND flash memory this summer. At 8Gbytes, it is dense enough to store 2,000 MP3 music files, or eight hours of DVDquality films. Other offerings in the MLCbased MMCplus cards from the company include one, two and 4GByte versions.
Samsung has also developed the higher-performance MMC, which is claimed to increase by a factor of three the performance of conventional small form factor memory cards. Using SLC NAND flash memory, the MMC can provide a read speed of 40Mbyte/sec. Write speed is 25Mbyte/sec. This format’s capacity can save six MPS songs/sec and two hours of DVD-quality film in less than one minute. A one and a 2Gbyte density card is available.
Secure digital cards
At the beginning of 2000, Matsushita, SanDisk and Toshiba established the Secure Digital (SD) Card Association to establish technical and specification standards for SD memory cards and to promote the format for use in digital audio-visual, wireless communications and digital networking applications. Now, six years later, the speed of transfer afforded by digital technology and the need for security of the kind of information that is being passed from mobile to networked electronic devices has become a burning issue.
To meet the new classes of high-capacity SD cards needed for memory-intense audio, video and telecomms devices, the association agreed three classes of data transfer rates to create the next generation of SD cards. The results are Class 2, Class 4 and Class 6, which support minimum transfer rates of 2Mbyte/sec, 4Mbyte/sec and 6Mbyte/sec respectively. Next month, Toshiba (www.toshiba-components.com) will make available 4Gbyte SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) cards, compliant to the SDA’s Class 4 classification with a maximum data transfer rate of 5Mbyte/sec. The company also plans 8Gbyte and 16Gbyte SD highcapacity cards for next year.
Toshiba has also expanded its miniSD with the addition of a 2Gbyte card. This miniSD is, as the name suggests, smaller than the standard SD format at 20 x 21.5 x 1.4mm. However, the format size is not limiting the capacities that can be offered. Some mobile devices are equipped with a miniSD slot although they can also be used in standard SD slots using an adapter. They are increasingly used in mobile phones, where the integration of high-resolution cameras and support for audio files is pushing up the storage capacity requirements. The cards can store up to 35 hours of music and have a maximum writing speed of 5Mbyte/sec.
Contact Details and Archive...
Related Articles...
Most Viewed Articles...