M-Flash, Yet Another Flash Memory Format

Verteiron writes "Despite all the (mostly incompatible) flash memory/card formats out there already, a consortium made up of several Taiwan-based manufacturers are preparing to unveil a new one at the upcoming CeBIT. The memory itself, called M-Flash, will form the backbone of the new M-Card format. According to C-One, a member of the M-Card group and the maker of Pretec brand flash devices, the M-Flash memory architecture is cheap to manufacture and allows for devices 2/3 the size of existing MMC products. The M-Card format uses the USB 2.0 I/O specification, but C-One claims it will transfer data at twice the speed of USB 2.0 while using about a third the power required by current devices. To encourage adoption of the new card format, it has been designed to be compatible with the existing SD/MMC format at reduced speeds. C-One also plans to make the currently proprietary format an open standard. Palm Blvd. and the EE Times (free reg. required) have articles with a few more details."

Comments

Re:Convergence

[realdpk]

"To encourage adoption of the new card format, it has been designed to be compatible with the existing SD/MMC format at reduced speeds."

Seems pretty good to me. Not exactly one single standard (there's still Sony's MemoryStick and I think CF might still be in use somewhere), but nice to see it would still work with at least two existing memory standards.

Open Standards and Compatibility are A GOOD THING.

[Total_Wimp]

I was pretty sceptical 'till I got to that part. This seems like a well thought out product all the way around.

TW

Current list of formats

[Anonymous Coward]

- Smart Media Card
- XD Card
- Compact Flash I
- Compact Flash II
- Micro Drive
- Secure Digital
- MMC card
- MMC II card
- RS-MMC card
- Memory Stick card
- MS Pro
- MS MG Card
- MS MG Pro Card
- MS Duo
- MS MG Duo
- MS Pro Duo
- MS MG Pro Duo
- UTMA Fish Card

aren't standards great
just as long as it's MY standard of course

Re:Current list of formats

[Anonymous Coward]

Dont forget TransFlash

128mb the in less than 1cm squared in my phone :) ...but id rather see 10Gb solid state memory and a real operating system on a usable device than another nock off memory format. People really need to stop buying this sort of thing and then they wouldnt make it

converged memories

[Doc Ruby]

I'm generally happy with the convergence of these flash devices with one another. It looks like we'll eventually have two: USB and MMC - this MFlash does both. CompactFlash sockets can be filled with CF/MMC adapters. With the exception of the Sony (proprietary) Memory Stick - though Sony has started including both CF and MS sockets in top of the line gear, like their F-818 camera. Sony should release a CF MemoryStick socket. If eventually the Flash formats settle down the way floppy media formats did in the 1980s, we'll all benefit from the defragmented markets, economies of unified scale, and interop.

Re:Convergence

[Zocalo]

CompactFlash is still very much around and unlikely to go anywhere soon because of its dominance in the high end digital camera sector. As far as I am aware it's still the smallest removable media format that you can get a Microdrive in. Secondly, it has consistently offered the highest available storage capacity in a single card - up to 12GB (so far) if you have the cash. Even if you could afford it, whether you would actually want to trust 12GB of data to a single card is another matter of course.

eh ?

[selderrr]

it will transfer data at twice the speed of USB 2.0

Is that even possible ? Would any properly certified USB host-controller not be limited to USB2 speeds, unless they also force you to buy a PCI card that is M-whatever compatible ?

Lessons in standard you pay for

[augustz]

Some interesting lessons here in standards one pays for.

You'll all remember the cell phone wars. While the rest of world used GSM, american carriers, looking for a competitive advantage and patent royalities, and certainly unwilling to pay royalties to their competitors, got going with CDMA and TDMA to name a few of the schemes. While technically superior perhaps, one ends up with a fragemented market. What's interesting to see is the recent moves to GSM even in the US.

Memory cards, the same thing. If there was a true, open standard without payments (but with optional certification) a la USB, I don't think you'd see the number of flash memory formats poping up that we have been. Instead, sony pulled another ATRAC stunt with their memory stick, and other manufacturers and devices developers played in their own camps.

Short term gain for long term pain, my computer must have 5 or six slots for flash memory!

Here's the Ahha moment for USB (after the HCI/OHCI stuff). "On the second version of USB, we looked at how we could learn from the first round, and we decided that it was better for the industry for there to be one spec that was available to everybody," said Jason Ziller, an Intel technology initiatives manager.