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James Fee
09-28-2004, 07:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.techjapan.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=532&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0' target='_blank'>http://www.techjapan.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=532&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0</a><br /><br /></div>"<i>Olympus Corporation and Fuji Picture Film Corporation announced o*n the 27th that they have developed the first 1GB xD-Picture Card media. Both companies plan to release products in the Spring of 2005. The price has not yet been decided. Using a high-capacity technology called "MLC ( Multi Level Cell)" that stores multiple bits in a single memory cell, the small-sized card has a 1GB capacity. According to the companies, this development allows for a capacity of up to 8GB. The product name, for Olympus, will be "M-XD1GM." For Fujifilm, it will be "xD-Picture Card M1GB." The "M" in "M 1GB" represents the usage of MLC technology. Furthermore, Olympus has announced that compatibility with existing products "may require a firmware upgrade, or not be supported at all."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/xd1g.jpg" /><br /><br />For those of you who are not able to get the 4GB CF card Jason <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,6575">posted about this morning</a> and are stuck using xD-Picture Cards, there is good news from Japan. With digital powerhouses Olympus and Fujifilm, the xD-Picture Card format looks like it is really taking off. *cough*

Zack Mahdavi
09-29-2004, 07:05 AM
The xD format is beginning to sound like "Memory Stick: Part II". Seriously, what kind of organization would develop a brand new memory format (about 2 years now, right?), completely knowing that high capacity memory cards are on the horizon, and then not design the file system to support these high capacity cards? Instead, users are left to pray for a firmware upgrade or end up upgrading their devices...

I'm beginning to think that these cards are not backwards compatible for marketing reasons, not technical reasons.