Joe and Thread,
I bought two 32MB MultiMediaCards for my Pontis MP3 player. I have owned this device since Christmas of 1998, but just could not get used to only 8MB of memory. The Pontis MP3 player holds two MMC's so I officially have over one hour's worth of recording time. The only problem is that the cards cost almost as much as the player. I paid $72 each for the 32MB MMC cards. This is about the same price you would expect to pay for a 32MB CompactFlash card currently.
sandisk.com
I am excited about MMC and my next SanDisk compliant purchase will likely be a GPS device...
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
Dedicated GPS products from companies like Garmin, Magellan and Trimble offer positioning information today at prices within the realm of an average consumer. As positioning capability begins to migrate towards convergence products, the need for map storage increases the need for flash memory. Positioning information will be very useful to a cellular user. For example, consider a business user in an unfamiliar city. When on a business trip in New York, the user of a GPS equipped phone could simply reference the real-time map coordinates displayed on the phone to find their exact location or perhaps more importantly, a route to where they want to go. They could also call a business associate in the area and provide them with detailed instruction of their specific location and where to meet for a business appointment. At just 4MB per detail overlay map, a user with a MultiMediaCard enabled GPS phone can carry enough detailed maps to cover the entire New York City metropolitan area. It could list the nearest ATMs or restaurants with the correct business directory. The incorporation of incrementalMultiMediaCard storage capability allows simple and updatable detailed maps, further enhancing the product capability and desirability.
GET EXCITED ABOUT SDMC, TOO!!!
Secure Digital Card Product And Applications Backgrounder
The SD (Secure Digital) Memory Card is a revolutionary universal flash memory storage device designed to meet the converging security, capacity, ergonomic and performance requirements of emerging audio, video, data and multimedia consumer electronics markets. The SD Memory Card will be jointly developed by Matsushita Electric (best known for its Panasonic brand name products), SanDisk and Toshiba, market leaders of consumer electronics and flash memory data storage products. The SD Memory Card is a modified, highly secured and significantly improved version of the industry-leading MultiMediaCard, introduced in November 5, 1997 by SanDisk and Siemens. The SD Memory Card includes key enhancements over existing flash cards:
*Cryptographic security based on proven security concepts from DVD audio.
*Protection of copyrighted data.
*A high data transfer rate for fast copy/download.
*High storage capacity.
*A user selectable mechanical write protect switch on the exterior card casing.
*Improvements in Electro Static Discharge (ESD) tolerance provided through
enhancements to the card's protective casing.
*New SD Memory Card slots will accept existing MultiMediaCards,
allowing an easy migration path for future SD Memory Cards.
More than 70 products have been designed to use MultiMediaCard. New systems designed to use the SD Memory Card may also allow reading and writing of existing MultiMediaCards. This will ensure that existing user data can be easily used in next generation systems. SD Memory Cards cannot be used in MultiMediaCard slots.
The SD Memory Card weighs two grams and is the size of a postage stamp. A licensing entity will be established to license manufacturing rights to firms other than SanDisk and Toshiba under terms that will be specified at a later date. Consumer electronics manufacturers who wish to design slots for the SD Memory Card in their new consumer electronics products will be licensed to do so at a low, nominal fee.
Software and hardware support tools as well as PC connectivity will follow for the SD Memory Card. Transferring data, images and audio files to desktop and notebook computers will be facilitated via a floppy drive SD adapter, parallel port and Universal Serial Bus (USB) port readers and a PC Card adapter.
Product Overview
The SD Memory Card is 32 millimeters (mm) long, 24 mm wide and 2.1 mm thick. The card is slightly thicker than the 1.4mm MultiMediaCard allowing it to contain more memory. The other dimensions are the same. SD Memory Card packaging includes a new high performance, nine-pin SD interface that enables data transfer rates of up to two megabytes (MB) per second (eventually 10MB per second). Seven of the nine pins are the same as the seven pins of MultiMediaCards. Also included are unique and proprietary security features implemented with the card's controller which facilitate the secure exchange of content between host devices and the card. The security level has been designed to comply with both current and future Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) portable device requirements. A write protect switch automatically prevents consumers from accidentally overwriting or erasing data, images or audio files stored on the card. The ESD tolerance of the SD Memory Card is significantly higher than existing cards, +/- 10K volts for contact discharge and +/- 15K volts for air discharge, because its package uses raised plastic to overlay and protect the interface pins concealing them into separate channels. The simple serial interface offers easy integration into various devices regardless of the microprocessor being used.
Market Opportunity
The SD Memory Card is ideally suited for Internet music players, cellular phones, handheld computers, smart phones, car navigation systems and electronic books. New markets may also emerge to take advantage of the small size, solid-state (no moving parts) and highly secure removable data, image and audio storage card.
The SD Memory Card offers the ability to design very small consumer friendly devices. These devices typically require that they operate on only one or two "AA" batteries. By using the SD Memory Card, battery consumption is reduced because the card requires very minimal power to operate. It also offers high capacity so that a collection of near CD quality songs are mobile at all times. Several forms of music compression such as MP3 and AAC have gained widespread adoption in this market which allow songs to be downloaded from the internet or copied from personal CDs or MDs. The SD memory Card will be available for sampling beginning in Q1, 2000, and production shipments are scheduled for Q2, 2000.
SDMI Compliant Security
The SD Memory Card is designed to comply with all three levels of SDMI security requirements. Both non-protected (category 1) and copy protected (categories 2 & 3) material can be stored on the card. The copy protected material can be secured either by a unique card bound identification (category 2) or by an active cryptography algorithm (category 3), that involves challenge/response protocols against a private key. The SD Memory Card security features also have the capability to revoke non-compliant SDMI components using a Media Key Block if security is breached. Under this security scheme, a content provider?s data (music, books, software applications, maps, schedules, etc.) can be Checked-In (moved to the card), Checked-Out (moved from the card) or copied to other SDMI compliant cards with necessary copy restriction. The Check-In/Check-Out feature gives the content owners the confidence that their content is protected. It provides the consumer with quality content. In addition, consumers have the capability to move the content from the Internet, CDs and DVDs free from any legal issues.
Internet Music Players
Many consumers want to purchase songs a la carte. With internet music compression and removable storage such as the SD Memory Card, consumers will be able to purchase and download several songs from various albums/artists and pay for each song separately online. Because the card uses solid-state flash memory, these music players will never skip like a Compact Disc player and the sound quality will never suffer due to deterioration of the storage medium such as occurs with traditional audio tapes when over played or re-recorded.
Many new MP3 players are entering the market using the MultiMediaCard and the SmartMedia card as the primary storage device. By offering the best solution in terms of performance, capacity, size and advanced security, the SD Memory Card is envisioned as a superior storage solution over any other currently in the market place.
The SD Memory Card's SDMI compliant security features are expected to gain quick endorsement from all major content providers globally, who will now be able to participate fully in the new internet based content distribution model as well as engage in secure e-commerce transactions involving copyrighted or protected information. In addition to the support by Panasonic and Toshiba, two of the world's largest consumer electronics manufacturers, several other large manufacturers are expected to enter the internet music player market and the SD Memory Card will provide the storage solution for digital music.
Cellular Phones And Smart Phones
It's expected that the SD Memory Card will enjoy broadband support from leading telecommunications companies as it will offer more features than currently available in terms of capacity, performance and security. The SD Memory Card brings a genuine mass storage capability to cellular phones. With this new flash card, faxes, voice and e-mail messages, internet files and software applications can be downloaded securely to the card using sophisticated security features. Essentially the SD Memory Card will be a major enabler for wireless e-commerce in the emerging 3G cellular phones.
The SD Memory Card will initially be available in capacities of 32 and 64MB. A 32MB SD Memory Card, can store up to 23,250 double-spaced pages of text or over seven hours of voice messages. For storing near CD quality MP3 music, the 64MB SD Memory Card will store over one hour of MP3 music. This capability will enable new mobile phone designs which double as high fidelity digital music players.
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
GPS positioning information will be very useful to a cellular user. For example, consider a business user in an unfamiliar city. When on a business trip in New York, the user of a GPS equipped phone could simply reference the real-time map coordinates displayed on the phone to find their exact location or perhaps more importantly, a route to where they want to go. They could also call a business associate in the area and provide them with detailed instruction of their specific location and where to meet for a business appointment. At just 4MB per detail overlay map, a user with a SD Memory Card and a GPS phone can carry enough detailed maps to cover the entire New York City metropolitan area or even the entire state depending on storage capacity. It could list the nearest ATMs or restaurants with the correct business directory. The incorporation of incremental SD Memory Card storage capability allows simple and updateable detailed maps, further enhancing the product capability and desirability.
Vision
Looking ahead, the SD Memory Card is expected to become the universal storage solution for consumer electronic devices, as well as one of the key enablers of e-commerce for Internet and wireless applications. Slots for the SD Memory Card will appear in numerous mobile devices which will all allow for interchangeability across various platforms.
The high security features of the SD Memory Card will become an indispensable factor in enabling e-commerce applications, including personal and business financial data, books, software and downloaded applications such as the daily updated Official Airline Guide or the Tokyo daily train schedules.
The SD Memory Card can be an ideal solution for several applications including digital cell phones, handheld computers, digital audio players, digital smart phones, handheld GPS devices and electronic books. With these applications including a specific slot for the SD Memory Card, the opportunity should be in excess of 420 million potential slots for SD Memory Cards by the year 2003, according to reports from the IDC and Semico market research firms.
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