Memory Cards are a popular storage medium for many of today’s consumer. A memory card or flash card, commonly used in various electronic devices such as Mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, laptop computers and video game consoles etc., is a small electronic flash memory data storage device. This device is very small, re-recordable and we can also retain the stored data without power. There are many types of memory cards used for mobile phones. Some of them are discussed here:
Types of memory card:
1. SD Memory Card: These are the digital memory card for the mostly digital devices.
SD, mini SD, micro SD, SDHC, mini SDHC, micro SDHC and SDXC are the different types of SD memory cards, but MicroSD memory cards are the most popular cards for expanding the mobile phone memory for their incredibly minute size. These cards are initially developed by SanDisk mainly used for mobiles right from the start. Earlier, these cards were known as T-Flash cards and later on being renamed TransFlash cards just before their current name MicroSD. There are a wide range of mobile phones that uses these memory cards such as LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, BenQ-Simens series etc. For Mini and Micro Card, we need adapter to connect it in SD Card Slot.
MicroSD card Specifications
- Weight: 0.5 grams
- Width: 11 mm
- Length: 15 mm
- Thickness: 1 mm
- Number of Pins: 8 pins
MiniSD Memory Card
MiniSD memory cards are not such frequently used format as MicrSD card. This card weighs just a gram and it measures 21.5 x 20 x 1.4 mm (HWD). It was founded in 2003 for fulfill the big demand of a small memory chip.
2. Compact Flash Memory Card
Compact Flash memory card comes in 1994, a mass storage device format, is used in portable electronic devices. This card typically uses flash memory in a standardized enclosure for data storage, thinner (3.3 mm), flash only, now up to 128 GB. This card can maximize the functionalities of today’s digital devices. This is one of the oldest and most successful formats and it has done well in the market of professional camera.
3. Memory Stick
In the year 1998, Sony has launched a removable flash memory card called Memory stick. This device is also used for describing the whole family of memory sticks generally. This card is ultra thin measuring 21.5 x 50 x 2.8 mm that is ideal for the usage in miniaturized digital AV electronics products. It can be expanded for incorporating digital copyright features.
M2, PRO and DUO are the 3 memory stick of Sony.
Memory Stick Micro (M2): 15 mm x 12.5 mm x 1.2 mm
Memory Stick PRO: 50 mm x 21.5 mm x 2.8 mm. The Memory Stick PRO format has an an 8-bit parallel interface with theoretical transfer rates up to 480Mb/s. It is commonly used in high megapixel digital cameras and digital camcorders.
Memory Stick PRO DUO: 31 mm x 20 mm x 1.6 mm. The Memory Stick PRO Duo media is about one-third the volume and half the weight of standard-size media, but offers all the advanced functions of Memory Stick PRO media
4. Multi Media Card
The MultiMediaCard (MMC), a flash memory card standard, is a slim and small measuring 24x32x1.4mm3 and can store upto 16 GB. This flash memory card was introduced by Siemens AG and SanDisk in 1997. This card is based upon Toshiba’s NAND-based flash memory that is smaller than earlier systems based on Intel NOR based memory like CompactFlash. It is available in sizes up to 32 GB and is best for every context such as digital audio players, cellular phones, digital cameras and PDAs. SmartMedia used to be one of the most common types of digital camera storage media. It was jointly invented by Olympus and Fuji.
MMC, RS-MMC/MMC Mobile, MMC plus, MMC micro are the different types of Multimedia card.
Advantages of Multi Media Card:
1. It is smaller and thinner that CF cards.
2. It also has contact pins directly on the surface of the card.
5. XD memory card: Olympus and fuji films memory card introduce this memory card in 2002-07. This is Slim and small (20×25×1.78 mm3)
