SmartMedia
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| Media type | Memory Card |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Toshiba |
SmartMedia is an obsolete flash memory card standard owned by Toshiba.
History
It was launched in the summer of 1995 to compete with MiniCard, CompactFlash, and PC card formats. SmartMedia was initially named the Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC) and pitched as a successor to the floppy disk, albeit memory cards are nowadays associated with digital cameras, digital audio players, PDAs, and other devices. A SmartMedia card consists of a single NAND flash chip embedded in a thin plastic card (though some higher capacity cards contain multiple, linked chips). It was one of the smallest and the thinnest (0.76 mm) of the early memory cards, and managed to maintain a favorable cost ratio as compared to the others. It lacks a built-in controller, which kept the cost down. This feature later caused problems, since some older devices would require firmware updates to handle larger capacity cards.
Typically, a SmartMedia card was used as storage media for a portable device, in a form that can easily be removed for access by a PC. For example, pictures taken with a digital camera would be stored as image files on a SmartMedia card. A user could copy the images to his computer with a SmartMedia reader (typically a small box that connects via USB or some other serial connection). Modern computers, both laptops and desktops, will occasionally have SmartMedia slots built in. While dedicated SmartMedia readers have dropped off, readers that read multiple card types (such as 4 in 1, 10 in 1, etc) continue to include the format. Since these multi-card readers are becoming increasingly common, especially on new computers, the installed base of Smartmedia cards is still increasing and has never been larger as of 2007.
SmartMedia was popular in digital cameras, and reached its peak in about 2001 when it garnered nearly half of the digital camera market. It was backed especially by Fuji and Olympus, though the format was starting to have problems. Namely, cards larger than 128 MB were not available and the compact digital cameras were reaching a size where even SmartMedia were too big to be convenient. A further blow happened when Toshiba switched to Secure Digital cards, and it ceased to have major support after Olympus and Fuji both switched to xD. It did not find as much support in PDAs, MP3 Players, or Pagers as some formats (especially in North America and Europe), though there was still significant use.
SmartMedia cards larger than 128 MB have not been released, and some older devices cannot support cards larger than 16 (sometimes 32) MB without a firmware update (or at all in some cases), both of which contributed to their demise. There were, however, some rumors of a 256 MB card being planned. Technical specifications for the memory size were released, and the 256 MB cards were even advertised in some places.
SmartMedia cards no longer appear to be produced by either Toshiba or Samsung, and rebadged versions are no longer being sold by companies such as Lexar and Sandisk. As such, SmartMedia cards are becoming increasingly challenging to find.
SmartMedia cards come in two formats, 5 V and 3.3 V (sometimes marked 3 V), named for their main supply voltages. The packaging is nearly identical, except for the reversed side of the mechanical orientation notched corner. Many older SmartMedia devices only support 5V SmartMedia cards, whereas many newer devices only support 3.3V cards. In order to protect 3.3V cards from being damaged in 5V-only devices, the card reader should have some mechanical provision (such as detecting notch type) to disallow insertion of an unsupported type of card. Be aware: some low-cost 5V-only card readers do not operate this way; inserting a 3.3V card into a 5V-only reader will result in permanent damage to the card. Dual-voltage card readers are highly recommended.
There is an oversized/external xD-Picture card-to-SmartMedia adapter that allows xD cards to use an SM port (but does not fit entirely inside an SM slot). There is a limit on how big the xD card can be when used in such adapters (sometimes 128 MB or 256 MB), and the device is subject to the restrictions of the SmartMedia reader as well. An advantage that remains over some other formats is the ability to use any capacity of SmartMedia card in a standard 3.5" floppy drive by using a FlashPath adapter for the format.
Smartmedia memory cards are no longer manufactured, old stocks of new 128mb can be obtained from specialist suppliers while supplies last but are disappearing fast and as demand is still quite high for these cards, the prices are rising. The current price for a 128MB card on eBay is about £30 ($60 USD Approx; €50 Approx).
Copy protection
Many SmartMedia cards include a little-known copy protection feature known as "ID". This is why many cards are marked with "ID" beside the capacity. This gave every card a unique identification number for use with copy protection systems. [1] This system is also implemented with the newer xD cards.
Specifications
- Weight: 2 g
- Size: 45.0 × 37.0 × 0.76 mm
- Capacities: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 MB
- Uses 16-Mbit, 32-Mbit, and 64-Mbit Toshiba TC58-compatible NAND-type flash memory chips
- Flat electrode terminal with 22 pins — (32M & 64M compatible)
- 8-bit I/O Interface (16-bit in some cases)
- Data transfer rate: 2MB/s
- 1,000,000 read/write cycles
- ten year storage time without power
- metallic write-protect sticker
- Compatible with PCMCIA with an adapter
- Compatible with CompactFlash Type II with an adapter
- Compatible 3.5" Floppy drive using FlashPath adapter
See also
References
External links
- SSFDC Forum
- [1] Pretec SmartMedia to Type II CompactFlash adapter
- [2] Ritek Website SmartMedia product overview, with 256 MB card listed as largest size.
- [3] SSFDC News Site with PDF document listing news of the 256 MB SmartMedia card technical specifications being released in SmartMedia NEWS 2002.1 NO.1
- Olympus Emporium page on xD/SM to PCMCIA adapter
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