SmartMedia
SmartMedia is an obsolete flash memory memory card standard owned by Toshiba. It was launched in the summer of 1995 to compete with Intel's unsuccessful MiniCard and SanDisk's wildly successful Compact Flash format, when flash memory was still being pitched as the successor to floppy disks. (This is before memory cards would become synonymous with digital cameras, mp3 players, and PDAs.) Originally named Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC), a SmartMedia card consists of a single NAND flash EEPROM chip embedded in a thin plastic card. Its primary advantage was the lack of a built-in controller in the card, which kept the cost down.
Typically, a SmartMedia card was used as storage media for a portable device, in a form that can easily be removed for access by a PC. For example, a digital camera would use a SmartMedia card for storing image files. With a SmartMedia reader (typically a small box that connects via USB or some other serial connection), a user could copy the pictures taken with the digital camera off to his or her computer. Modern computers, both laptops and desktops, will occasionally have SmartMedia slots built in, but this is becoming less common as SmartMedia becomes less common.
SmartMedia was fairly popular in digital cameras, and had Olympus's support until they switched to Secure Digital Card (and later xD cards). It never found much support in PDAs, mp3 players or pagers, and was obsoleted by the better-supported, smaller Secure Digital card. SmartMedia cards have a hard size cap of 128 MB, and this contributed to their demise. Nevertheless, Lexar and Samsung still manufacture SmartMedia cards for the remaining SmartMedia-using devices out there.
SmartMedia cards come in two formats, 5V and 3.3V (sometimes marked 3V), named for their main supply voltages. The packaging is nearly identical, except for the reversed side of the mechanical orientation notched corner.
Specifications
- Weight: 2 g
- Size: 45.0 x 37.0 x 0.76mm
- Capacities: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 MB
- Uses 16-Mbit, 32-Mbit, and 64-Mbit NAND-type flash memory chips
- Flat electrode terminal with 22 pins – (32M & 64M compatible)
- 8-bit I/O Interface
- Compatible with PCMCIA with an adapter
- 100,000 read/write cycles
- ten year storage time without power
- metallic write-protect sticker
External links
- SmartMedia details on PCMCIA site
- SSFDC Forum
See also
Categories: Solid-state computer storage media