Memory card

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Miniaturization is evident in memory card creation; over time, the physical card sizes have become smaller. Memory-card-comparison.jpg
Miniaturization is evident in memory card creation; over time, the physical card sizes have become smaller.
Memory card in a digital SLR camera Pentax K10D with SanDiskSD card.jpg
Memory card in a digital SLR camera

A memory card is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in digital portable electronic devices, such as digital cameras as well as in many early games consoles such as the Nintendo Wii. They allow adding memory to such devices using a card in a socket instead of protruding USB flash drives. [1]

Contents

Common types of flash memory card include SD cards (including microSD), Sony's Memory Stick and CompactFlash. As of 2024, SD cards are the most common type of memory cards.

History

The basis for memory card technology is flash memory. [2] It was invented by Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in 1980 [3] [4] and commercialized by Toshiba in 1987. [5] [6]

The development of memory cards was driven in the 1980s by the need for an alternative to floppy disk drives that had lower power consumption, had less weight and occupied less volume in laptops. Some were also marketed as a lower cost alternative to ROM cartridges. [7] Several competing and incompatible memory card formats were developed by several vendors, [8] such as for example the Bee Card, Astron SoftCards, [9] Sega Cards, NEC UltraLite memory cards, [10] [11] and the Mitsubishi Melcard which came in variants using 60 and 50 connector pins. The Sega Card was developed as a cheaper alternative to game cartridges. [12] Some memory cards were used for memory expansion in laptops. [13] [14] [15]

JEIDA, the Japan Electronic Industry Development Association, began to work on a standard for memory cards in 1985, and developed the JEIDA memory card in 1986. [16] The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was an industry association created in 1989 to promote a standard for memory cards in PCs, and worked closely with JEIDA, adopting their 68 pin connector design. The specification for PCMCIA type I cards, later renamed PC Cards, was first released in 1990, and unified the JEIDA memory card standard with the PC Card standard. [15] [17] This format later included support for other devices besides memory cards. [17] PC Card was among the first commercial memory card formats to come out, but is mainly used in industrial applications and to connect I/O devices such as modems.

Some early memory cards used SRAM as a storage medium, which required a lithium battery to keep the contents in the SRAM. These cards were faster than their flash counterparts. Some of the first PCMCIA cards had capacities of 1 to 5 MB and cost US$100 per MB. [18] Other early cards such as the Bee Card contained non-modifiable ROM, Write once read many EPROM or rewriteable EEPROM memory. [19] In 1992, SanDisk introduced FlashDisk, a PCMCIA card and one of the first memory cards that did not require battery power to retain its contents, as it used flash memory. [20] [18]

In 1994, memory card formats smaller than the PC Card arrived. The first one was CompactFlash and later SmartMedia and Miniature Card. The desire for smaller cards for cell-phones, PDAs, and compact digital cameras drove a trend that left the previous generation of "compact" cards looking big. In 2000 the SD card was announced. SD was envisioned as a single memory card format for several kinds of electronic devices, that could also function as an expansion slot for adding new capabilities for a device. [21] In 2001, SmartMedia alone captured 50% of the digital camera market and CF had captured the professional digital camera market.

However, by 2005, SD and similar MMC cards had nearly taken over SmartMedia's spot, though not to the same level and with stiff competition coming from Memory Stick variants, as well as CompactFlash. In industrial and embedded fields, even the venerable PC card (PCMCIA) memory cards still manage to maintain a niche, while in mobile phones and PDAs, the memory card has become smaller.[ citation needed ]

Initially memory cards were expensive, costing US$3 per megabyte of capacity in 2001; [22] this led to the development of miniaturized rotating disk memory devices such as the Microdrive, PocketZip and Dataplay. The Microdrive had higher capacities than memory cards at the time. All three concepts became obsolete once flash memory prices became lower and their capacities became higher by 2006. [20]

New products of Sony (previously only using Memory Stick) and Olympus (previously only using XD-Card) have been offered with an additional SD-Card slot beginning in 2010. [23] Effectively the format war has turned in SD-Card's favor. [24] [25] [26]

Data table of selected memory card formats

NameAbbreviationForm factor (mm) DRM
PC Card PCMCIA85.6 × 54 × 3.3No
CompactFlash ICF-I43 × 36 × 3.3No
CompactFlash IICF-II43 × 36 × 5.5No
CFexpress Type ACFA20 × 28 × 2.8Unknown
CFexpress Type BCFX38.5 × 29.8 × 3.8Unknown
CFexpress Type C ?54 × 74 × 4.8Unknown
SmartMedia SM/ SMC45 × 37 × 0.76  ID
Memory Stick MS50.0 × 21.5 × 2.8 MagicGate
Memory Stick DuoMSD31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6 MagicGate
Memory Stick Pro DuoMSPD31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6 MagicGate
Memory Stick Pro-HG DuoMSPDX31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6 MagicGate
Memory Stick Micro M2M215.0 × 12.5 × 1.2 MagicGate
Miniature Card  ?37 × 45 × 3.5No
Multimedia Card MMC32 × 24 × 1.5No
Reduced Size Multimedia Card RS-MMC16 × 24 × 1.5No
MMCmicro Card MMCmicro12 × 14 × 1.1No
Nintendo Switch NS31 × 21 × 3 ?
P2 card P285.6 × 54 × 3.3No
PS Vita PSV30 x 22 x 2 ?
SD card SD32 × 24 × 2.1 CPRM
SxS SxS75 × 34 × 5No
Universal Flash Storage UFS ?Unknown
microSD card [ broken anchor ]microSD15 × 11 × 0.7 CPRM
xD-Picture Card xD20 × 25 × 1.7No
Intelligent StickiStick24 × 18 × 2.8No
Serial Flash ModuleSFM45 × 15No
μ cardμcard32 × 24 × 1Unknown
NT Card NT NT+44 × 24 × 2.5No
XQD card XQD38.5 × 29.8 × 3.8Unknown
Nano Memory cardNM Card12.3 × 8.8 × 0.7Unknown

Overview of all memory card types

Comparison

Standard SD UFS Card CFast XQD CFexpress
Version3.04.06.07.0 [28] 8.01.02.01.02.01.02.01.02.04.0
Launched2010 Q22011 Q12017 Q12018 Q22020 Q12016 Q2?2008 Q32012 Q32011 Q42014 Q12017 Q22019 Q12023 Q3
BusUHS-IUHS-IIUHS-IIIPCIe 3.0 x1PCIe 4.0 x2UFS 2.0UFS 3.0SATA-300SATA-600PCIe 2.0 x1PCIe 2.0 x2PCIe 3.0 x2PCIe 3.0 x1/x2/x4PCIe 4.0 x1/x2/x4
Speed

(full-duplex)

104 MB/s156 MB/s624 MB/s985 MB/s3938 MB/s600 MB/s1200 MB/s300 MB/s600 MB/s500 MB/s1000 MB/s1970 MB/sup to 4 GB/sup to 8 GB/s

Video game consoles

Many older video game consoles used memory cards to hold saved game data. Cartridge-based systems primarily used battery-backed volatile RAM within each individual cartridge to hold saves for that game. Cartridges without this RAM may have used a password system, or would not save progress at all. The Neo Geo AES, released in 1990 by SNK, was the first video game console able to use a memory card. AES memory cards were also compatible with Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinets, allowing players to migrate saves between home and arcade systems and vice versa. [29] [30] Memory cards became commonplace when home consoles moved to read-only optical discs for storing the game program, beginning with systems such as the TurboGrafx-CD and Sega-CD.

Until the sixth generation of video game consoles, memory cards were based on proprietary formats; Later systems used established industry formats for memory cards, such as FAT32.

Home consoles commonly use hard disk drive storage for saved games and allow the use of USB flash drives or other card formats via a memory card reader to transport game saves and other game information. Though some consoles have implemented cloud storage saving, most portable gaming systems still rely on custom memory cartridges to store program data, due to their low power consumption, smaller physical size and reduced mechanical complexity.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PC Card</span> Expansion card standard for laptop computers

PC Card is a parallel peripheral interface for laptop computers and PDAs. The PCMCIA originally introduced the 16-bit ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to PC Card in March 1995 to avoid confusion with the name of the organization. The CardBus PC Card was introduced as a 32-bit version of the original PC Card, based on the PCI specification. The card slots are backward compatible for the original 16-bit card, older slots are not forward compatible with newer cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory Stick</span> Sonys removable flash memory card format, launched in July 1998

The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family 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 ; the even smaller Memory Stick Micro (M2), and the Memory Stick PRO-HG, a high speed variant of the PRO to be used in high-definition video and still cameras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CompactFlash</span> Memory card format

CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SD card</span> Type of memory storage for portable devices

Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format the SD Association (SDA) developed for use in portable devices.

In computing, a removable media is a data storage media that is designed to be readily inserted and removed from a system. Most early removable media, such as floppy disks and optical discs, require a dedicated read/write device to be installed in the computer, while others, such as USB flash drives, are plug-and-play with all the hardware required to read them built into the device, so only need a driver software to be installed in order to communicate with the device. Some removable media readers/drives are integrated into the computer case, while others are standalone devices that need to be additionally installed or connected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MultiMediaCard</span> Memory card format

MultiMediaCard, officially abbreviated as MMC, is a memory card standard used for solid-state storage. Unveiled in 1997 by SanDisk and Siemens, MMC is based on a surface-contact low-pin-count serial interface using a single memory stack substrate assembly, and is therefore much smaller than earlier systems based on high-pin-count parallel interfaces using traditional surface-mount assembly such as CompactFlash. Both products were initially introduced using SanDisk NOR-based flash technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">USB flash drive</span> Data storage device

A flash drive is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. A typical USB drive is removable, rewritable, and smaller than an optical disc, and usually weighs less than 30 g (1 oz). Since first offered for sale in late 2000, the storage capacities of USB drives range from 8 megabytes to 256 gigabytes (GB), 512 GB and 1 terabyte (TB). As of 2024, 4 TB flash drives were the largest currently in production. Some allow up to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the exact type of memory chip used, and are thought to physically last between 10 and 100 years under normal circumstances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SmartMedia</span> Memory card format

SmartMedia is an obsolete flash memory card standard owned by Toshiba, with capacities ranging from 2 MB to 128 MB. The format mostly saw application in the early 2000s in digital cameras and audio production. SmartMedia memory cards are no longer manufactured.

xD-Picture Card Memory card format

The xD-Picture Card is an obsolete form of flash memory card, used in digital cameras made by Olympus, Fujifilm, and Kodak during the 2000s. The xD in the xD-Picture Card stands for eXtreme Digital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microdrive</span> One-inch hard disk format by IBM and Hitachi

The Microdrive was a miniature, 1-inch hard disk drive released in 1998 by IBM. The idea was originally created in 1992 by duo Timothy J. Riley and Thomas R. Albrecht at the Almaden Research Center in San Jose. A team of engineers and designers at IBM's Fujisawa, Japan facility helped make the creation of the drive possible.

The PocketZip is a medium-capacity floppy disk storage system introduced by Iomega in 1999. It uses very small 54.5mm x 50.2mm x 2.0mm 40 MB disks. It was originally known as the "Clik!" drive until the click of death class action lawsuit regarding mass failures of Iomega's original Zip drives, after which it was renamed "PocketZip". In 2001, the company announced bigger-capacity 100 MB disks, which were never released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flash cartridge</span> Cartridge containing flash memory developed for use in video game consoles

A flash cartridge is a homebrew video game cartridge that uses flash memory for storage as well as running applications. These cartridges enable homebrew applications and games to be used and played when they are inserted into an otherwise officially licensed game console. The game storage can be in the form of onboard flash memory on the cartridge, although newer cartridges usually use external memory cards as storage in place of onboard memory, such as Compact Flash or Secure Digital. Recent flash cartridges may also use RAM instead of ROM for flashing games to run on the console as a way to offer faster loading times than what is possible on reprogrammable ROM.

In computing, external storage refers to non-volatile (secondary) data storage outside a computer's own internal hardware, and thus can be readily disconnected and accessed elsewhere. Such storage devices may refer to removable media, compact flash drives, portable storage devices, or network-attached storage. Web-based cloud storage is the latest technology for external storage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JEIDA memory card</span> Memory card format

The JEIDA memory card standard is a popular memory card standard at the beginning of memory cards appearing on portable computers. JEIDA cards could be used to expand system memory or as a solid-state storage drive.

This table provides summary of comparison of various flash memory cards, as of 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory card reader</span>

A memory card reader is a device for accessing the data on a memory card such as a CompactFlash (CF), Secure Digital (SD) or MultiMediaCard (MMC). Most card readers also offer write capability, and together with the card, this can function as a pen drive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ROM cartridge</span> Replaceable device used for the distribution and storage of video games

A ROM cartridge, usually referred to in context simply as a cartridge, cart, cassette, or card, is a replaceable part designed to be connected to a consumer electronics device such as a home computer, video game console or, to a lesser extent, electronic musical instruments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game backup device</span> Device for backing up ROM information from a video game cartridge

A game backup device, informally called a copier, is a device for backing up ROM data from a video game cartridge to a computer file called a ROM image and playing them back on the official hardware. Recently flash cartridges, especially on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS platforms, only support the latter function; they cannot be used for backing up ROM data. Game backup devices also make it possible to develop homebrew software on video game systems. Game backup devices differ from modchips in that modchips are used in conjunction with systems that use generally available media such as CDs and DVDs, whereas game backup devices are used with systems that use cartridges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dongle</span> Small piece of computer hardware

A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CFexpress</span> Memory card format

CFexpress is a standard for removable media cards proposed by the CompactFlash Association (CFA). The standard uses the NVM Express protocol over a PCIe 3.0 interface with 1 to 4 lanes where 1 GB/s data can be provided per lane. There are multiple form factors that feature different PCIe lane counts. One of the goals is to unify the ecosystem of removable storage by being compatible with standards already widely adopted, such as PCIe and NVMe. There already is a wide range of controllers, software and devices that use these standards, accelerating adoption.

References

  1. ↑ Sahoo, Reeta Sahoo, Gagan. Infomatic Practices. New Saraswati House India Pvt Ltd. ISBN   978-93-5199-433-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ Micheloni, Rino; Crippa, Luca; Marelli, Alessia (2010). Inside NAND Flash Memories. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 2. ISBN   9789048194315.
  3. ↑ Fulford, Benjamin (24 June 2002). "Unsung Hero". Forbes. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2008.
  4. ↑ US 4531203 Fujio Masuoka
  5. ↑ "1987: Toshiba Launches NAND Flash". eWeek . April 11, 2012. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  6. ↑ "1971: Reusable Semiconductor ROM Introduced". Computer History Museum . Retrieved June 19, 2019.
  7. ↑ "What MSX? (GB)". 1985 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ Inc, InfoWorld Media Group (February 5, 1990). "InfoWorld". InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. – via Google Books.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  9. ↑ "MSX Computing (GB) : Haymarket Publishing : Free Download, Borrow, And Streaming : Internet Archive". 1984.
  10. ↑ Machrone, Bill (November 15, 1988). "NEC's 4.4-Pound UltraLite Sets a New Standard for Portable Machines". PC Mag. Ziff Davis, Inc. pp. 33, 35.
  11. ↑ Inc, InfoWorld Media Group (October 30, 1989). "InfoWorld". InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. – via Google Books.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  12. ↑ Pettus, Sam; Munoz, David; Williams, Kevin; Barroso, Ivan (December 20, 2013). Service Games: The Rise and Fall of SEGA: Enhanced Edition. Smashwords Edition. ISBN   978-1-311-08082-0 – via Google Books.
  13. ↑ http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/mitsubishi/Mitsubishi_VLSI_MOS_Memory_RAM_ROM_and_Memory_Cards_Jan91.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  14. ↑ Inc, Ziff Davis (January 26, 1993). "PC Mag". Ziff Davis, Inc. – via Google Books.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  15. 1 2 Anderson, Don; Inc, MindShare (January 25, 1995). PCMCIA System Architecture: 16-Bit PC Cards. Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN   978-0-201-40991-8 – via Google Books.{{cite book}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  16. ↑ https://www.cqpub.co.jp/hanbai/books/49/49971/49971_1syo.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  17. 1 2 Inc, Ziff Davis (December 21, 1993). "PC Mag". Ziff Davis, Inc. – via Google Books.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  18. 1 2 Inc, Ziff Davis (December 21, 1993). "PC Mag". Ziff Davis, Inc. – via Google Books.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  19. ↑ "What MSX? (GB)". 1984.
  20. 1 2 "25 Years of CompactFlash: A Look Back at the Pioneering Format". PCMAG.
  21. ↑ Corporation, Bonnier (May 27, 2000). "Popular Science". Bonnier Corporation – via Google Books.
  22. ↑ "PCWorld.com – DataPlay Shows Breakthrough in Storage Media". June 8, 2001. Archived from the original on June 8, 2001.
  23. ↑ Grunin, Lori (January 6, 2010). "Sony Does SD; Panasonic Intros First SDXC Cards | 2010 CES — CNET Blogs". Ces.cnet.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  24. ↑ "Format-Krieg entschieden: SD-Card setzt sich durch" ("format-war resolved: SD-card prevails"), Chip-online, 14. January 2010
  25. ↑ "Camera trends come into focus for 2010", NBC News, 13. January.2010 "As much as the storage-format war cleared up a bit with Sony announcing that it would support SD and SDHC cards ..."
  26. ↑ "FEATURE: Playing Your Cards Right at Retail" Archived 2013-06-17 at the Wayback Machine , Peter K. Burian, 4. June 2010. "Some industry observers have suggested that this development signals an end to the 'format war,' ..."
  27. ↑ "SanDisk and Sony Announce SxS Memory Card: Digital Photography Review". Dpreview.com. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  28. ↑ Pinto, Yosi. "SD + PCIe/NVMe Card New Innovations in SD Cards Lead the Way to Mobile Everything" (PDF). Flash Memory Summit.
  29. ↑ "The Official NEO-GEO Memory Card FAQ by Billy Pitt". NeoGeoProtos.com. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
  30. ↑ "This Fall Everything Turns To Gold With Neo-Geo: The Player's Gold Card Keeps Them Coming Back For More". RePlay. Vol. 16, no. 2. November 1990. pp. 26–7.
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