Flash/Memory Cards

Posted in | at 3/03/2011 12:51:00 AM

          What is a memory card? Some people might think about the memory card that is used by Sony Playstation to save your own game data for progress. Well, they're not wrong definitely. But the term 'memory card' is very common as it is one of the primary storage devices that are often used in small electronic devices.



          A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices. Most of the current products use flash memory, although other technologies are being developed. 




          There are a number of memory cards on the market, including the SD card (Secure Digital card), the CF card(CompactFlash card), the SmartMedia card, the Memory Stick, and the MultiMediaCard (MMC). These cards are of varying sizes, and each is available in a range of storage capacities that typically corresponds directly to the price. The CompactFlash card is about the size of a matchbook, while the MultiMediaCard and Secure Digital card are each about the size of a postage stamp. 



          SD cards are normally used in cameras and older handheld devices (Palm).There are variations of SD card too: miniSD and microSD. The smaller SD card models are used in newer devices nowadays because when small cards are used as secondary storage of the device, the device has more room to be designed and improved. CF cards are used in higher resolution cameras and hi-definition camcorders. As for Memory Stick, it is more for Sony applications and products (Sony digital camera, Sony PSP, Sony Ericsson phones). They have some variations of it too like Memory Stick Pro Duo and Memory Stick Micro M2 (mini size). SmartMedia cards are obsolete now as their maximum capacity is only 128MB. They were used as a storage medium in older cameras around year 2000. 

          What are the few advantages that memory sticks can offer us?

Types
  • A memory stick can come in different types. The standard type of memory stick is a Secure Digital card, but memory sticks are available from Kingston as well as Olympus. Other types of memory sticks include Secure Digital, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, MultiMediaCard, xD-Picture Card as well as SmartMedia and MemoryStickPRO from Sony. A USB flash drive can also be considered a memory stick because data is stored on a flash memory chip.


Portability

  • A memory stick is designed to be used in many different types of devices and as a result is extremely portable. A memory stick is small and can be taken from place to place by being left in an electronic device or put in your pocket.


Storage

  • A memory stick can store more data than other forms of media such as a floppy disk, Compact Disc or DVD disk. Older memory sticks could only store up 64 megabytes to 256 megabytes of data. A typical memory stick available today can store anywhere from 1 gigabyte to 16 gigabytes or more of data.

Uses
  • A memory stick has many types of uses but they are primarily used in a variety of digital cameras to store pictures and video clips. A memory stick is also available for cell phones to store pictures as well as MP3 music files. Memory sticks can also be used in GPS devices to store maps and other types of information.




The only turn-off with the many variety of memory cards in the market is that you need to buy a card reader in order to transfer data to your personal computer or anywhere else. Card readers are usually equipped with USB interface.

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1 Response to "Flash/Memory Cards"

  1. KLChua says:
    March 3, 2011 at 9:19 AM

    Flash or Memory Cards do bring lots of benefits to the people, as it's small in size, yet it provides such a large capacity as the technologies are getting more advance. Great post, thanks for sharing.

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