About memory Cards

Introduction

A memory card or flash memory card is a solid-state data storage device used with:

• digital cameras
• digital photo frames
• handheld and laptop computers
• telephones
• other electronic devices

Which offer:

• high record rates
• power-free storage
• small size
• rugged environmental specifications

There are also non-solid state memory cards that do not use flash memory, and there are different types of flash memory.

Flash cards have been suggested as a possible replacement for the floppy disk, although USB flash memory drives, which work on almost any computer with a USB port, have been successfully filling this role.

There are many different types of memory cards and jobs they are used for, and the most common types for digital photo frames and cameras are covered in more detail below.

In the 1990s, a number of memory card formats were produced, which included:

• CompactFlash
• SmartMedia
• Miniature Card

From the late 1990s into the early 2000s a host of new formats appeared, including:

• SD/MMC
• Memory Stick
• XD-Picture Card
• Plus a number of variants and smaller cards.

The desire for ultra-small cards for compact digital cameras, mobile phones and PDAs continued, and drove a trend toward smaller cards that left the previous generation of "compact" cards looking big.

In digital cameras SmartMedia (SM) and CompactFlash (CF) had been very successful. In 2001, SM alone captured 50% of the digital camera market and CF had a dominant position on professional digital cameras.

By 2005, however, SD/MMC had nearly taken over SmartMedia's spot, though not to the same level and with stiff competition coming from Memory Stick variants, XD, as well as CompactFlash.

Today, some PCs have built-in slots for a variety of memory cards:

• Memory Stick
• CompactFlash
• SD

Where PCs do not have built-in slots, then a Memory Card Reader/Writer can be easily attached to a USB port on the PC. Digitalframecompany.com offer both memory cards and card reader/writers, for sale on the web site.

Digital photo frames usually support many types of memory card to ensure compatibility with those used in digital cameras. The most common types of card:

• SD
• CF
• MD
• MS
• MMC
• SM
• XD

These are covered in more detail below.

SD (Secure Digital)

The benefits of the SD format are:

• Smallest, secure flash memory card in the market today
• Low power requirement
• Highest capacities of memory cards available
• Ideal for Digital Photo Frames
• Most cards are available with a small write protect switch on the side which ensures your Digital Photographs can not be overwritten; see yellow switch on example below.

SD cards are the best option available for taking your digital files with you anywhere. This makes the carrying of digital photos in a wallet or purse very easy.

CF (CompactFlash)

There are two main versions of CF cards.

• Type I
• Type II, which is slightly thicker

There are two main speeds of cards:

• CF , the original
• CF High Speed, which is also known as:
  • Ultra
  • Pro
  • Extreme
  • Many other branded names.

High speed data transfer is not so critical in a digital photo frame, which means the slower and less expensive cards are perfectly adequate. The CF Type II slot is used by MicroDrives (see below) and some other devices.

MD (MicroDrive)

MicroDrives are:

• Tiny hard disk (about 1 inch or 25 mm wide)
• Packaged with a CompactFlash Type II connection
• Developed by IBM 1999 but now other brands sell MicroDrives (such as Seagate, Sony, etc)
• Have become available in increasingly larger capacities (up to 8 GB).
• MicroDrives will fit into any CF II slot
• Take more power on average than flash memory, however, this is not so important on a digital photo frame
• Being a mechanical device they are more sensitive to physical shock and temperature changes than flash memory, though in practice they are very robust and have proved reliable

Please see MicroDrive beside a £2 coin.

MMC (MultiMediaCard)

The MultiMediaCard is a flash memory card standard that is much smaller than CompactFlash.

• MMC is about the size of a postage stamp: 24 mm x 32 mm x 1.5 mm
• Currently available in sizes up to and including 8 GB
• Used in almost every context in which memory cards are used such as:
  • cellular phones
  • digital audio players
  • digital cameras
  • digital photo frames

Since the introduction of Secure Digital card few companies build MMC slots into their devices, but the slightly thinner, pin-compatible MMC cards can be used in almost any device that supports SD cards.

Some people believe that MMC will be superseded by SD (Secure Digital) cards, but they still see significant use because MMC cards can be used in any device which supports SD cards.

MS (Memory Stick)

Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony in October 1998, and is also used in general to describe the whole range of Memory Sticks. This range includes the Memory Stick Pro, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds; Memory Stick Duo, a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick (including the Pro Duo); and the even smaller Memory Stick Micro (M2).

SM (SmartMedia)

SmartMedia is a flash memory card standard owned by Toshiba.

It was launched in the summer of 1995 to compete with MiniCard, CompactFlash, and PC card formats. SmartMedia was initially named the Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC) and pitched as a successor to the floppy disk, albeit memory cards are nowadays associated with digital cameras, digital photo frames, digital audio players, and other devices.

A SmartMedia card consists of:

• A single chip embedded in a thin plastic card (though some higher capacity cards contain multiple linked chips).
• Was one of the smallest and the thinnest (0.76 mm) of the early memory cards
• Managed to maintain a favourable cost ratio as compared to the others.

SmartMedia was popular in digital cameras, and reached its peak in about 2001 when it gained nearly half of the digital camera market. It was backed by Fuji and Olympus, though the format was starting to have problems. Namely:

• Cards larger than 128 MB were not available
• Compact digital cameras were reaching a size where even SmartMedia were too big to be convenient.
• Finally, Olympus switched to Secure Digital cards, and ceased to have major support after Olympus and Fuji both switched to XD.

XD (eXtreme Digital)

The XD-Picture Card is a type of flash memory card, used mainly in digital cameras. XD stands for extreme Digital. The cards were introduced into the market in July 2002 and developed by Olympus and Fujifilm. Toshiba Corporation and Samsung Electronics manufacture the cards for Olympus and Fujifilm. Other brands, including Kodak, SanDisk, and Lexar, now sell XD cards.

XD-Picture Card compared in size with a 1 cent US coin

Memory Card Format table

The table below is a summary of many of the popular types of memory card available, along with their most common acronym (there may be others) and size.

Name	Acronym	Size
PC Card	PCMCIA	85.6 × 54 × 3.3 mm
CompactFlash I	CF-I	43 × 36 × 3.3 mm
CompactFlash II	CF-II	43 × 36 × 5.5 mm
SmartMedia	SM / SMC	45 × 37 × 0.76 mm
Memory Stick	MS	50.0 × 21.5 × 2.8 mm
Memory Stick Duo	MSD	31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6 mm
Memory Stick Micro M2	M2	15.0 × 12.5 × 1.2 mm
Multimedia Card	MMC	32 × 24 × 1.5 mm
Reduced Size Multimedia Card	RS-MMC	16 × 24 × 1.5 mm
MMCmicro Card	MMCmicro	12 × 14 × 1.1 mm
Secure Digital Card	SD	32 × 24 × 2.1 mm
miniSD Card	miniSD	21.5 × 20 × 1.4 mm
microSD Card	microSD	11 × 15 × 1 mm
XD-Picture Card	XD	20 × 25 × 1.7 mm
Intelligent Stick	iStick	24 x 18 x 2.8 mm

If you have any questions relating to memory cards or this information please e-mail .

Thanks

digitalframecompany.com