Matsu****a Develops 1GB SD Memory Card

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.twomobile.com/content/1309.php">http://www.twomobile.com/content/1309.php</a><br /><br />1 GB of storage capacity and faster speeds to boot? I'm in love. The article also mentions an incredible 16 GB capacity by 2005. <img src="images/smiles/icon_eek.gif" />. Those capacities are getting to the point where I'd rather use SD than a hard drive, assuming the speeds are up to snuff. Imagine switching to another OS by simply putting in a memory card. I know you can do that now with IDE drives, but SD cards are smaller and more durable.<br /><br />I wonder what will happen to CF? Will it continue to scale, or will it slowly die off? The capacities for MultiMediaCards (MMC) are lagging behind SD in a big way, so it's tough to back anything other than SD (even though it's a proprietary standard that others have to pay royalties on to use).<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/1gbsd.jpg" /><br /><br />"Matsu****a Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. has unveiled a working prototype of a SD (Secure Digital) memory card with a 1G byte capacity, at the Ceatec 2002 exhibition. The company, which is better known by its Panasonic brand name, said the card is not expected to go on sale until around one year from now when a larger market for such a capacity card exists and production costs have fallen. The card will be the first SD memory card to take advantage of a higher speed interface that will be able to shift data between the card and device at up to 20 Mbps (bytes per second) -- double the speed of current 256M-byte and 512M-byte cards and 10 times the speed of cards that are up to 128M byte capacity."<br /><br />Source: <a href="http://www.flashenabled.com/mobile">pt</a>

[jeff]

Those capacities are getting to the point where I'd rather use SD than a hard drive, assuming the speeds are up to snuff. Imagine switching to another OS by simply putting in a memory card. I know you can do that now with IDE drives, but SD cards are smaller and more durable.

Check out this discussion for the drawbacks of using flash memory for an OS.

http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=33&threadid=21786&highlight_key=y&keyword1=flash

Jeff

[mobileMike]

Does anyone know if you need special hardware to take advantage of the faster interfaces? Would I see a 5 fold increase in speed with my PocketPC between the existing 128 and 256MB SD cards?

/ mike

[ricksfiona]

I just have one word: cost.

I would love to have 1GB SD card. I would totally use it. But, I'm not going to pay more than $200 for it. If they can do that, I'm there.

[ThomasC22]

And yet another nail in the coffin of CF Cards (although at this point I'd be happy to see CF become a peripheral interface and SD be a memory interface).

[apeguero]

I hear that ThomasC22. That's what I currently use my CF card for, like a Hard Drive for my PPC. I only use CF for periferals and for carrying around my MP3 files :wink:

[Sven Johannsen]

Now if I could get anything bigger than a 64M card to work reliably in my Jornada, I'd be excited. My 64M Sandisk MMC works great in both the PCCard sled and MMC Battery. But my 128 Kodak MMC and 128 Sandisk SD are consistantly lousy. OS can't find the card, programs fail to load, docs fail to be found. Can't go an hour without an error. Yes, latest HP drivers. Yes, formatted (with PPC and with desktop reader). Done everything I know, except complain to HP. Any ideas? Anyone know of any confirmed hardware problems in the HP MMC slots? Remember I have two different brands of memory and two different types and two different HP slots. Every combo reacts about the same with the 128s. Never a hitch with the one 64M I have.

(Haven't pressed it, since it is actually saving me money on bigger SD/MMC cards :) :()

[dunneldeen]

The capacities for MultiMediaCards (MMC) are lagging behind SD in a big way, so it's tough to back anything other than SD (even though it's a proprietary standard that others have to pay royalties on to use).

Who wants to access 16Gig of data a MMC speeds anyways?

[DaleReeck]

CF cards won't go anywhere because, at least for now, SD cards are unsuitable for I/O things, like network cards and GPS. I heard of a company that is working on an SD network card, but I suspect it won't have the range or power of an equal CF card. And it may not even be a technology thing. The physical small size of a SD card makes it tough for anything other than memory or short range communication.

[st63z]

Please, has anyone found a place to buy a CF adapter for SD that will fit in a digital camera (like that Panasonic prototype picture that was posted here a while back)? I've been looking and looking (especially recently) but no luck. I'd bought a Cruzer SD card as a gift for someone, but then found out he just bought a Minolta Dimage 7i digicam that uses CF.

And I'm getting more and more inclined to try a Panasonic (or maybe Lexar?) 256/512 card instead of the slow SanDisk 256 I'm using now. I hope I'll be able to see an immediate speed boost in existing devices (USB SD readers, SanDisk Cruzer, digicam, Pocket PC, etc). Hmm, seems I've whined about this not too long ago, oh well.

It was getting to be embarrassing, I was shooting with my Dimage X at a friend's wedding recently, and trying to regale the passers-by with tales of the X's best-in-class start and cycle times. But seems the SanDisk SD card was behaving particularly bad that day, many of the shots (only 2MP JPEGs mind you) would force me to wait an extra few seconds to finish writing to the card, which meant lost opportunities.

[bdeli]

Please, has anyone found a place to buy a CF adapter for SD that will fit in a digital camera (like that Panasonic prototype picture that was posted here a while back)? I've been looking and looking (especially recently) but no luck. I'd bought a Cruzer SD card as a gift for someone, but then found out he just bought a Minolta Dimage 7i digicam that uses CF.

Try here - http://www.mittoni.com/securedigital/adapter.html

[yawanag]

Correct me, if I'm wrong, and I hope someone will but what's the sense in all that memory when main memory runs out long before the memory on your storage card.

I was hesitant in buying the T-Mobile because of 32 MB but when Amazon.com came out with the terrific Rebate offer I couldn't resist. I bought it and immediately bought a 128 MB SD card but I'm seeing 7.01 in main memory while I have 77.4 free on the storage card.

[Merlion]

And yet another nail in the coffin of CF Cards (although at this point I'd be happy to see CF become a peripheral interface and SD be a memory interface).
Mmm ... thus far, where capacity is concern, CF has always has more capacity than SD, so even when the 1GB SD card is released 1 yr from now, what's the diff from current standing? By then, there'll likely be ** 2GB (or bigger) CF memory cards & 6GB CF Microdrives, so the situation isn't any different. Programs & data will get larger, & megapixel-pic file sizes will also get larger.

I mean, if there's a Wi-Fi SD card or GPS SD card being released, etc., then "another nail in the coffin of CF cards" makes sense. You could also say that if a new SD card has a higher capacity than any CF card but that wasn't the case.

** I've read last year that 1GB & then 2GB CF memory cards will be released this yr. So far, only 1GB cards are available so I supposed 2GB cards are in the horizon. Last yr, IBM also announced that they were building super-dense HDD based on their AFC media, & that they could produce 6GB Microdrives in 1 or 2 yrs. It's been 1-1/2 yrs now, AFC-based HDD has been in the market since last year, so I expect the 6GB Microdrive to be released next yr.

[Merlion]

Correct me, if I'm wrong, and I hope someone will but what's the sense in all that memory when main memory runs out long before the memory on your storage card.

I was hesitant in buying the T-Mobile because of 32 MB but when Amazon.com came out with the terrific Rebate offer I couldn't resist. I bought it and immediately bought a 128 MB SD card but I'm seeing 7.01 in main memory while I have 77.4 free on the storage card.
These storage cards, e.g., SD/MMC/CF cards, are used as external storage for your device, like you would add a HDD to your desktop computer. They have nothing to do with the working memory of your device. If you want to increase the internal RAM of your device, you'd have to go to a 3rd party PPC shop like PocketPCTechs.com that could do major surgeries on certain devices to increase their RAM.

External storage could relieve your internal RAM if you install your programs to the external storage card, or store your data on the storage card, thereby allowing more free space on your internal RAM. Huge files like picture files, MP3s, books, dictionaries, maps, movies, etc. are ideally stored on external storage or they'll fill up the internal memory real fast.

[Merlion]

Please, has anyone found a place to buy a CF adapter for SD that will fit in a digital camera (like that Panasonic prototype picture that was posted here a while back)?
Besides www.flashreaders.com/sd-cf-adapter.html mentioned above, there's also this one (http://www.pretec.com/index2/product/Accessory/CompactTRIO.htm) from Pretec that can accept SD, MMC, or MS (Sony's MemStick).
Here's another two (http://www.carry.com.tw/products/CF_adapter/all_cfadapter.htm) by Carry Computers, & this one (http://www.planex.net/product/cfadapter/cfadapter_j.htm) is a CF Type-I card, like the Mittoni, which is compatible with more devices.

[st63z]

Thanks for the links! I should've clarified that I'm looking for a CF adapter that's not any larger than a standard CF memory card. That means 36mm L x 43mm W dimensions.

I have the Pretec CompactTRIO and it works great, just too big. If you insert it into a CF digicam, you wouldn't be able to close the media door.

[Master O'Mayhem]

ooo... my next conquest for my next trip to Japan :)

[krisbrown]

Nice, but what about MMC, I can't believe a lovely new format like this has compatability issues allready, some devices may or may not accept SD , why is SD so popular, surely MMC is the one to take off, who's gonna want secure files ??? It's like record companies secure audio compression being more popular tham MP3 ? Don't get it.
What's the difference,SD seems to be faster, is it?
I've heard some won't physically fit in MMC slots.
Will someone please get together and make 1!!!!! memory standard.

Any UK readers try www.photoglossy.com good prices on sd/mmc/cf/memstick and very cheap posting plus always reliable, had no probs so far.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

Nice, but what about MMC, I can't believe a lovely new format like this has compatability issues allready, some devices may or may not accept SD , why is SD so popular, surely MMC is the one to take off, who's gonna want secure files ??? It's like record companies secure audio compression being more popular tham MP3 ? Don't get it.
What's the difference,SD seems to be faster, is it?
I've heard some won't physically fit in MMC slots.
Will someone please get together and make 1!!!!! memory standard.

Any UK readers try www.photoglossy.com good prices on sd/mmc/cf/memstick and very cheap posting plus always reliable, had no probs so far.

I bought into MMC when I got my first PPC, the Casio EM500. There are a few primary reasons why MMC is suffering at the hands of SD:

1) The (not yet fully realized) I/O capabilities of SD... meaning SD can support the type of peripheral devices that CF can (while MMC is purely memory oriented).

2) Storage expandability is far better with SD than with MMC. MMC tops out at 128MB while SD is available at 512MB despite having been on the market for a shorter timeperiod.

3) While the initial SD card releases didn't prove so, the SD cards can potentially read/write far more quickly than MMC while using less power.

I think we'd all love one common media format... and at this time, it looks like SD is making a significant push to be that format. I don't believe either SM (smartmedia) or MMC will last much longer. Unless you're a Sony user, I believe CF and SD will be the medium of choice for quite a while.

Ekkie

[Jonathon Watkins]

Thanks for the links! I should've clarified that I'm looking for a CF adapter that's not any larger than a standard CF memory card. That means 36mm L x 43mm W dimensions.

I have the Pretec CompactTRIO and it works great, just too big. If you insert it into a CF digicam, you wouldn't be able to close the media door.

Hmmm, the Mittoni site claims that it is a standard Type II size.

]Secure Digital MultiMedia Card SD MMC to CompactFlash CF Adapter Features
Weight: 16g
Dimensions: 55mm x 37mm x 4mm (CF Type II)
Data transfer up to 8MB/sec.

However I measured my CF card and sure enough - it is 36mm L x 43mm W, just like st63z said it was.

So - if anyone knows od a SD converter card that will actually fit inside a PDA or camera - let us know! :D