Three major Flash memory manufacturers are collaborating to develop a next-generation card, which they hope will become an industry standard. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Toshiba Corp and SanDisk Corp are working together to specify and develop a new card, called the SD Memory Card, and the Japanese companies will develop new audio/video based around the memory.
The companies are working to develop a high capacity card with good read/write access times and security features. The cards will facilitate secure exchanges of data between the host device and the card and be compliant with the SDMI internet audio compression format. The firms expect that solid state music players, along with PDAs, mobile phones and digital cameras will be the major markets for the new cards.
The firms are planning to launch 32Mb and 64Mb versions of the card next year and a 256Mb version in 2001. The companies also hope to boost industry acceptance of the SD card by creating a body that will widely license the technology. The first cards will start sampling in the first quarter of 2000, with volume production coming online in the middle of the year.
