Handset memory card standard is finalised

The MultiMediaCard Association finalised the MMCmicro specification at its recent Summer General Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland.

The MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) finalised the MMCmicro specification at its recent Summer General Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland.

The new MMCmicro Cards represent the third MultiMediaCard form factor, along with MMCplus and MMCmobile cards.

Measuring 12 x 14 x 1.1mm, they are about one-third the size of MMCmobile cards.

The MMCmicro card standard is designed to meet the latest market requirements for data storage in mobile phones.

It operates at either 3.3 or 1.8V and is capable of data transfer rate of up to 26Mbyte/s, the highest in performance amongst micro-sized memory card standards in the market.

In addition, 1Gbyte of Flash memory can be packaged into an MMCmicro card with existing NAND Flash technology.

The resulting high performance and large memory capacity in a small footprint lets mobile phone manufacturers incorporate more multimedia features in the mobile handsets for the consumers to enjoy a rich multimedia experience wherever they go.

The MMCmicro cards are similar in size to embedded Flash memory, but are readily removable to allow for upgrading to different memory capacities and be interoperable with other consumer electronics devices.

A 256Mbyte MMCmicro card can hold about 250min of CD-quality music, or over 500 photos taken on a mobile phone with a 2Mpixel camera.

According to Danny Lin, MMCA Marketing Committee Co-Chair: "MMCmicro Cards is the latest memory card standard from the MMCA".

"These micro-sized memory cards, will permit handset manufacturers to pack large amounts of removable data storage into ever-smaller handsets".

"And as more memory-intensive audio and video applications appear on mobile handsets, they will in turn drive demand for even greater storage capabilities".

The MMCmicro card standard was originally proposed by Samsung Electronics Co for adoption by the MMCA.

Samsung and other companies have been mass-producing the cards since March.

MMCmicro cards in densities up to 1Gbyte will be available this year, with 2 and 4Gbyte expected in late 2006 and mid-2007, respectively.

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