It's Memory Mania with MMC

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/PressRelease/PressRelease.asp?seq=20050606_0000134182#' target='_blank'>http://www.samsung.com/PressCenter/...606_0000134182#</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced a major new commitment to the MultiMediaCard (MMC) market by initiating mass production of two new ultra-high-speed MultiMediaCards: MMC plus and MMC mobile. The new, ultra-fast MMCs are capable of transmitting data at 52MBytes per second, up to twenty times faster than existing MMCs, by supporting wider x4 and x8 bus widths. A third Samsung MMC, the MMC micro, went into mass production earlier this year in densities of 32MByte/64MByte/128MByte/256MByte. The faster speeds and smaller footprint of MMCs allows consumers to enjoy higher performance from advanced mobile consumer devices, such as mobile phones, DSCs, PDAs, MP3 Players and PMPs (portable multimedia players)."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050617-MMC.jpg" /><br /><br />Okay, no rants about lack of standardisation here. Samsung have taken a different route by improving the performance of an existing memory format, rather than introducing a whole new one. The MMC Plus will sport data transfer speeds of 52MB/second and will still be compatible with SD/MMC-equipped PDAs. All that speed is probably something your Pocket PC wouldn't be able to take advantage of, but who cares? It's all about satisfying the inner geek. ;-)

[Jason Dunn]

Given Samsung's tremendous experience in the Flash memory realm, I'm surprised they haven't become a major player in Flash cards. This is typical Samsung though, in a good way: they don't invent new standards, they adopt one then drive innovation and low price points. It will be interesting to see what happens...

[rbrome]

There's a big story here that not many people are aware of.

1. Samsung has a virtual monopoly on NAND chips for removable flash memory.

2. The MMCmicro "standard" requires those special NAND chips that only Samsung makes.

3. Samsung refuses to let its chip customers use its NAND chips in other memory card formats like the competing TransFlash/microSD:

http://www.digitimes.com/telecom/a20050617A2004.html

4. Samsung is going to make MMCmicro the standard memory card format on all its new phones starting in the 2nd half of this year.

...which all adds up to a massive, monopolostic attempt to completely hijack the entire memory card market. It's pretty nuts.

[stlbud]

...which all adds up to a massive, monopolostic attempt to completely hijack the entire memory card market. It's pretty nuts.

Gee, that sounds familiar. Sort of like ... umm ... oh gee, I'm going out on a limb here ... Sony?

Bill B.

[yanathin]

Am I the only one confused on how she's holding all four of those with one finger? 8O

[Jason Dunn]

Am I the only one confused on how she's holding all four of those with one finger? 8O

They're glued together. Or she has a high midoclorian count and is using her Jedi make-things-float power. :lol:

[Darius Wey]

They're glued together. Or she has a high midoclorian count and is using her Jedi make-things-float power. :lol:

Bwahahahahaha! :rotfl:

[jlp]

64-512 MB? I'm very very... UNimpressed. :cry:

Pretec annouced superfast 2 GB MMC cards at least one year ago, while PQI displays 2 GB MMC cards on their site as well.