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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."
Not ANOTHER format.. now i'll need to buy a 7-way-card reader instead of the currenet 6-way beasts of devices companies put out.
Cant we all play nice ???
With digicams heading towards 14 megapixels, I can see the need for faster data storage (ever waited for a 60mb RAW file to save to a CF card?), and introducing something that combines backwards compatibilty with SD/MMC cards and native USB2.0 support (No more card readers, just an adaptor cable, or possibly even a set of built-in contacts like the new SD/USB cards.) seems like a suspiciously common-sense approach.