Solid State Media: Memory Card Technologies and Standards

Definition and General Use of Memory Cards

  • A memory card is an electronic storage device for digital media such as photos and videos, mostly used in digital cameras.

Secure Digital (SD)

  • Introduced in 1999 by SanDisk, Panasonic, and Toshiba, SD cards were made for portable electronic devices with a max capacity of 2 GB2 \, GB.

Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC)

  • Developed due to insufficient capacity of SD cards, SDHC increases storage potential but is not compatible with older card readers.

microSD

  • Created to fit mobile phones, microSD cards are the smallest available and widely adopted by manufacturers.

CompactFlash (CF)

  • CF cards are fast and durable, preferred by professionals in filmmaking and photography, especially in high-end cameras.

CFast

  • A smaller, faster evolution of CF, CFast cards resemble CF but are incompatible with standard CF slots and readers.