MultiMediaCards Make a Comeback

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.atpinc.com/home/kente/mmc.htm

Has anyone ever heard of ATP? I haven't, but it looks like they're about to make a big splash in the memory card world. For those that don't know, the SD card standard is controlled by Panasonic, and when a company like Sandisk wants to make cards, they pay a royalty to Panasonic. MMC, on the other hand, is a royalty-free format governed by several companies. MMC cards came out before SD cards, but they had no momentum and topped out around 128 MB. The format seemed all but dead, yet somehow ATP has managed to crank out 512 MB MMC cards, and they have 1 GB cards on tap as well. Here's a blurb from their site:



"ATP's MultiMediaCards™ make your digital music (MP3s), digital photos and all other digital data more portable than ever before. Approximately the size of a postage stamp, ATP's MultiMediaCards are fully compliant with industry standards, and Plug and Play compatible. ATP MultiMediaCards achieve much higher read and write throughput speeds than leading competitors."

They have a PDF benchmark file that shows ATP MMC cards outperforming SD cards, which is something I haven't seen before. I hope we see some pricing competition for SD cards to prices will fall - 512 MB SD cards are still a little pricey, although they've certainly come down in price a great deal over the past six months.

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.atpinc.com/home/kente/mmc.htm

Has anyone ever heard of ATP? I haven't, but it looks like they're about to make a big splash in the memory card world. For those that don't know, the SD card standard is controlled by Panasonic, and when a company like Sandisk wants to make cards, they pay a royalty to Panasonic. MMC, on the other hand, is a royalty-free format governed by several companies. MMC cards came out before SD cards, but they had no momentum and topped out around 128 MB. The format seemed all but dead, yet somehow ATP has managed to crank out 512 MB MMC cards, and they have 1 GB cards on tap as well. Here's a blurb from their site:



"ATP's MultiMediaCards™ make your digital music (MP3s), digital photos and all other digital data more portable than ever before. Approximately the size of a postage stamp, ATP's MultiMediaCards are fully compliant with industry standards, and Plug and Play compatible. ATP MultiMediaCards achieve much higher read and write throughput speeds than leading competitors."

They have a PDF benchmark file that shows ATP MMC cards outperforming SD cards, which is something I haven't seen before. I hope we see some pricing competition for SD cards to prices will fall - 512 MB SD cards are still a little pricey, although they've certainly come down in price a great deal over the past six months.

[T-Will]

How much $$$ are they?

[dean_shan]

SD or MMC it doesn't matter to me. Whatever one it cheaper per MB I will go for it. But the smallest card I will buy is 128MB.

[aroma]

8O This is suprising. I didn't even know there was anything bigger than 128MB on the market, and here they come out of left field with not only a 256MB already for sale but a 512 to soon follow! I didn't see this one comming.

[R K]

I think Sandisk had a 256MB MMC Card out for a short while now.

[dean_shan]

I went to the Gizmodo website (source of the MMC news) and went to the link for an Amphibious Car, I want one. That is so cool.
:nonono: I mean those MMC cards look good.

[nosmohtac]

I couldn't find a price on any of these. Anyone know how much they are?
I was going to buy a MMC before I bought SD, because they were cheaper, and I don't need the Secure feature of SD. I'm glad somebody bumped up the bar on MMC. :clap:

[patwoods]

Originally Posted by R K

I think Sandisk had a 256MB MMC Card out for a short while now.

I got screwed trying to buy a 512MB PQI SD card from Buy.Com about a month ago. It was listed with an image and everything, but when it shipped, I got a 256MB XD card instead, and an apology.

[kendrick]

This is great news. Now that SD no longer has an advantage in capacity, there is absolutely no reason for consumers to continue to support that medium. There needs to be some serious push from the MMC standards body to educate consumers about how much their ability to use and manipulate data can be hindered, monitored or controlled through SD.

At risk of repeating myself, I have serious objections to the some of the methods used to implement DRM in current technologies. Secure Digital is just one of the many ways that limits are being imposed on consumers without their knowledge or consent. I hope that these new MMC cards lead OEM manufacturers to leave the SD features out of their devices.

-KKC, who didn't know that a single company held the rights to SD.

[CTSLICK]

Originally Posted by dean_shan

SD or MMC it doesn't matter to me. Whatever one it cheaper per MB I will go for it. But the smallest card I will buy is 128MB.

Ditto! Price rules but comparable performance will factor into it for me too.

So why did we "need" SD to begin with...I am trying to remember. Was it something to do with being able to use the technology for digital software rights?