CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 1997--Siemens Microelectronics Inc. and SanDisk today announced the MultiMediaCard (MMC), the world's smallest removable solid state memory solution for portable products.
Developed by the two companies, the MMC is a memory card the size of a postage stamp (32mm x 24mm x 1.4mm).
The MMC is extremely rugged, lightweight, power-saving, fast and cost-effective. Its integrated serial interface makes it easy to install. The card is particularly suitable for use in mobile applications such as mobile phones, pagers, laptops, automotive applications, industrial handheld devices and consumer electronics like cameras and solid-state music playback.
A number of leading cell phone companies are already supporting MMC technology as the new industry standard for removable storage media. According to Horst Pratsch, head of MMC activities with Siemens Semiconductor Group in Munich, the MultiMediaCard has already been accepted by Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Qualcomm and Siemens PN (Private Communication Systems) for use in their future telecommunication products.
As a leading worldwide supplier of flash memory products, SanDisk will manufacture the flash version, while Siemens will produce the ROM version. The latter supports the rapidly growing mobile applications market and is ideally suitable for use as a database for storing street maps, travel and hotel guides, dictionaries, games, music or firmware and software updates in office or communication applications. The MMC is supported by numerous standard operating systems for communications equipment such as Windows CE and Geos Works.
The 2MB ROM version is available immediately and the 8MB will be sampling in January. The flash version will be sampling in January in 2 and 4 MB. OEM pricing, in high volume for the 2MB flash MMC is priced at $26, the 4MB card at $32, the 8MB card at $43 and the 10MB card at $45. The ROM versionis available in OEM quantities at $4.50 for 2MB and $10 for 8MB.
A PC demo/evaluation and a PCMCIA demo/development kit as well as an ODO reference platform are available for development.
Both companies will be showing the MMC at the fall COMDEX trade show in Las Vegas, Nev., Nov. 17 - 21. (SanDisk booth, L-1204, Las Vegas Convention Center; Siemens booth, S-4550)
Siemens Microelectronics Inc. (SMI), based in Cupertino, Calif., develops and manufactures semiconductors, optoelectronics and passive components for the communications, automotive and computer peripherals industries. SMI offers one of the broadest product portfolios in the microelectronics industry, and is a market leader in communications ICs, smart power products, embedded DRAM technology and custom optoelectronics.
A subsidiary of Siemens Corp., N.Y., SMI is affiliated with Siemens AG Semiconductor Group and Passive Components Group, Munich, Germany. Additional information is available at smi.siemens.com .
Quotes:
Horst Pratsch, vice president for Siemens' MultiMediaCard, said, "SanDisk and Siemens have jointly developed the industry's ideal mass storage device for mobile applications. Siemens and SanDisk have met with leading manufacturers of mobile phones, pagers, mobile computing and other mobile electronic products who are enthusiastically endorsing the MultiMediaCard for its ease of integration and additional functionality."
Eli Harari, CEO and president of SanDisk, said, "SanDisk is committed to make MMC a broadly supported new industry standard. SanDisk's Israel Design Center, established specifically to develop MMC, has worked closely with Siemens and the world's leading telecommunications companies.
"The broad adoption of MMC as the new storage card standard for intelligent communications devices and other small form factor consumer electronic products, will greatly accelerate the market development of smart phones, advanced pagers and consumer multimedia devices."
Mats Lindoff of Ericsson said, "The MultiMediaCard will win wide endorsement from manufacturers of mobile phones and pagers because of the increased functionality it brings to those products. The MMC is an ideal fit for future communications products that Ericsson will introduce to the market."
"Motorola is pleased to support this initiate," said Jim Caile, corporate vice president, Motorola's Cellular Subscriber Sector. "We believe that MMC represents a removable media standard that will enable user friendly storage-intensive applications, in a manner similar to, and complementary with, other standardized removable media, such as smart cards and PC cards."
Mikko Terho, vice president, wireless data, Nokia Mobile Phones, said, "The rapid growth of the telecommunications market will accelerate with the advent of next generation communications products. The MultiMediaCard will be an integral part of that industry growth because of its small form factor, versatility, low price and low power requirements."
"QUALCOMM's digital CDMA phones will benefit from the compact MultiMediaCard's low power requirements and mass storage capabilities to provide our customers with the most advanced technological developments in the industry," said Gina Lombardi, vice president of product development for QUALCOMM's Subscriber Products Division."
Dr. Joachim Grollmann, director of product marketing for mobile phones from Siemens Private Communication Systems said: "The MMC is regarded to be an ideal mass storage medium for many interesting applications which can now be implemented with more advantages than ever before, especially in the area of mobile communication terminals."
Technical background information
The MultiMediaCard is based on a particularly advanced "ultra high density cell design" with vertical transistor technology. This new 3D fabrication technology has enabled production costs to be halved in comparison to conventional ROM technology.
Siemens expects to quadruple the storage capacity every year because of the continuous reduction in line width (roadmap shrink). By 2001, Siemens is planning to launch a 128 MB MultiMediaCard.
The memory card is housed in a plastic package measuring 32mm x 24mm x 1.4mm high. These dimensions correspond to just one fifth of the size of a CompactFlash card. Seven 1.7mm x 2mm contacts are available for easy mechanical connection to a host system. These are located on one side of the card and are coded to prevent incorrect insertion. They are designed for approximately 10,000 insertion/withdrawal cycles.
Data transfer via the serial synchronous high-speed 3-wire bus (MMC bus) can be varied between 0 and 20 Mbit/s and is controlled by the two operating modes "Card identification mode" and "Data transfer mode". The linear memory address space is accessed a byte at a time in an extremely short access time of less than 3 microseconds.
Other technical specifications of the mini memory card include its ESD protection of 4kV and its broad operating temperature range of -20 degrees C to +85 degrees C. Because of the low power consumption of 1mW at 100kHz or less than 0.1mW in standby mode and the variable voltage range of 2.0V to 3.6V, the memory card is ideally suitable for battery-operated systems.
Up to 30 different cards can be simultaneously inserted in a player and selectively addressed. In order to cover as wide a range of applications as possible, the interface protocol of the MMC has been designed for maximum scalability and configurability.
There is a printer port adapter which will accommodate two MMCs, and Siemens is developing a PC card reader also for two MMCs. A PC demo/evaluation and a PCMCIA demo/development kit as well as an ODO reference platform are available for development.
CONTACT:
Siemens
Jeff Davis, 408/777-4909
jeff.davis@smi.siemens.com
KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA
BW0050 NOV 05,1997
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