Taiwanese Firms To Launch a 2 Terabyte Memory Card

Krafty Koder writes "The Register is reporting that a consortium of Taiwanese firms are to launch a 2 Terabyte memory card at the Taipei International Electronics Show (Taitronics) on the 8th of October, with mass production expected to start next year. The card will measure 3.2 x 2.4 x 0.1cm according to this DigiTimes.com report" The reports say that this is supposed to be a "new type" of card, so the details are still quite sketchy. Offical unveiling will happen in early October.

Comments

Overstated

[Anonymous Coward]

They are not launching a 2TB memory card, they a launching a format they claim should support up to 2TB--big difference. The real news for the initial product seems to be a much faster transfer rate than the current SD format.

Re:Overstated

[BorgDrone]

The original memory stick supported up to 128 MB, the 256 MB cards 'cheated' by using a switch allowing you to switch between 2 128MB banks.

Here's hoping

[T-Kir]

That this solid state memory doesn't suffer from the non-sequential write issues that current flash media has (AFAIK).

Added to that, I remember reading about a Cambridge university division developing their own solid state memory (don't have the details to hand, but AFAIK IBM invested money into them), point is they were estimating 2TB for a credit card sized media.

When the ucard (or whatever they call it) goes into "Mass Production", I wonder what the price ranges are and just how much they will produce. If the media is affordable (and it works as promised), they have a chance to wipe the floor with the entire industry!

Mind, the problem with this media, no matter who much of a data hoarder you are (like me), you'll find ways to fill it. But if the media is reliable enough, I wonder what backup solutions coming out of this?

Memory card FORMAT

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a new memory card FORMAT, not a new card. It's like saying hard drive manufacturers are making 256TB drives because they use the 48-bit LBA standard. If this standard is implemented correctly, you'll be able to purchase a uCard MP3 player next year and a 12GB uCard 6 years later, and have that card work in the MP3 player.

Not the only one

[spiffturk]

According to the second link in the article (this one), Sony is coming out with 2TB storage as well in their memory stick format.

--
Will

Re:IDE interface ?

[Anonymous Coward]

The format supports up to 2 TB .. there isn't a 2 TB memory card coming out .. as usual slashdot deliberately overhypes. Probably they won't even correct the posting.

I suppose they need the clicks ... no place for ethics.

Re:IDE interface ?

[Glock27]

If the latency is good as well then this puts hard drives to same, esp since it would have less if any moving parts.

It will have no moving parts (it is apparently Flash or some similar technology) and should have latencies in microseconds instead of milliseconds.

I note that Memory Stick also has a 2 TB upper limit, so I think that part of things is more a theoretical maximum instead of something we might see in the near term.

However, a 16 GB version might be a nice swap device for an 8 GB AMD64 box - if the price is right of course, and the max number of write operations is reasonable. ;-)

BTW the correct dimensions are 24x18x1.4 mm.

These announcements happen all the time

[JBMcB]

Companies come out with these crazy new products at trade shows all the time. Usually it's way overpriced and in very limited quantities. They are looking for investment capital to further develop the technology. Sometimes it works out (Archos), sometimes it doesn't (Indrema).

I used to get Nasa Tech Briefs, a magazine full of new technologies Nasa has developed available for commercial licensing. From the time Nasa developed a new technology to the time it comes out for commercial use is about 10 years. I'm sure the same is true for many technologies.

Re:IDE interface ?

[ezzzD55J]

Small yet important nitpick..

"Supports 2 TB" could mean "uses 41-bit addressing" (2^41 B = 2TB). Current IDE interfaces with 48 bit addressing "support" up to 256TB of storage but you're not going to see that kind of density on a single device any time soon.

It is 48 bit addressing, but we're not addressing bytes, we're addressing 512-byte blocks. So the 48-bit ATA standard can address 144 petabytes.

So those 2TB are probably addressing blocks using 32 bits, a much more sensible number than 41 bits.

Re:IDE interface ?

[beef3k]

Yes, Memory Stick Pro/Duo allready has a maximum (theoretical) capacity of 2TB.

The news is the transfer rate which is more than twice that of High speed MMC cards (currently the fastest available) and six times that of the Memory Stick Pro/Duo.

So there is something to see here, but not a stamp sized 2TB storage device.

Don't be fooled again.

[tuxlove]

Notice how the article says "up to 2TB"? That doesn't mean they will be releasing 2TB cards any time soon. What it most likely means is that the hardware design supports up to 2TB of *addressing*. A 2TB memory card that size would be nothing short of earth shattering, and wouldn't be relegated to a 3-paragraph article on single website.

This is NOT a 2 terabyte memory card!

[b1t r0t]

RTFA:

Dubbed 'ucard', the format will support up to 2TB of storage capacity within a 3.2 x 2.4 x 0.1cm card - the same size as a standard MMC unit. The new cards are said to be connector-compatible with the older format.

It's a 2 terabyte maximum, not a 2 terabyte card.