The SD Card is ideally suited for portable digital devices such as audio players, digital still cameras, digital video camcorders, handheld PCs and cell phones. The SD Card is 32 millimetres long, 24 mm wide and 2.1 mm thick. The card is slightly thicker than a MultiMediaCard allowing it to contain more memory for higher data capacity while maintaining the smallest area profile in the market. Host systems designed for the SD Card will allow reading and writing of existing MultiMediaCards thus ensuring that existing user data can be easily migrated to, and used in, next generation systems.

SD Card packaging includes a new high performance, nine-pin SD interface that enables data transfer rates of up to 10 megabytes per second. New proprietary interface commands facilitate the secure exchange of content between host devices, like PCs and music servers and the card itself. The security level provided in the SD Memory Card has been designed to comply with both current and future SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative) portable device requirements. A mechanical write protect slide switch provides the consumer with added protection against accidental overwriting or erasure of data stored on the card.

The ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) tolerance has been significantly increased to ¡Ó10 Kvolts for contact discharge in the area of the interface pins and air discharge up-to ¡Ó15 Kvolts at all other points on the card body. A 9-pin serial interface ensures low cost integration into any device due to minimal pin count.

The Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card is a flash memory storage device designed by the consortium of Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), SanDisk and Toshiba to meet the security, capacity, performance and environmental requirements inherent in emerging audio and video consumer electronics devices. The SD Card design is highly leveraged from the existing MultiMediaCard specification. Key enhancements over the MultiMediaCard include cryptographic security for protection of copyrighted data, a 4X improvement in maximum data transfer rate and a user-selectable write protect switch on the card casing. Improvements in Electro Static Discharge (ESD) tolerance are also provided through enhancements to the card's protective casing.

SD Memory Cards are non-volatile, which means they do not require power to retain the information stored on them. They are solid-state devices, so they have no moving parts to skip or break down. They will offer an incredible combination of high storage capacity (32 MB & 64 MB in 2000, with the promise of up to 128 MB and 256 MB in the not-too-distant future), fast data transfer, great flexibility and excellent security. And of course, incredibly small size.

SD will facilitate fast, simple, secure downloading of all types of digital files, like music, movies, photos, news ¡X even cooking instructions for your microwave. Once downloaded to your PC, you can organize and store the files as you wish. Then easily transfer the files from your PC to a super-compact SD Memory Card, which will be accepted by a whole variety of future SD-enabled products. Of course, you will also be able to directly record your own audio, video, still photos, and more onto SD Memory Cards, as such products become available. (Return to Top)