Features - Storage Innovations:

TOSHIBA ANNOUNCES NEW FAMILY OF HIGH SPEED SD MEMORY CARDS

To meet the requirements of higher performance consumer electronics applications, Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc (TAEC) announced that the company is expanding its offering of NAND Flash-based memory solutions with a family of High Speed SD Memory Cards capable of achieving a maximum write speed of 10 MBps and a sustained write speed of 5 MBps. Developed by Toshiba Corp (Toshiba), the new memory cards feature a fivefold increase in data transfer rate over the company's standard SD Memory Cards and are targeted for demanding applications in digital video, digital audio, cellular phones, high resolution digital still cameras, PDAs, notebook computers and other high-end portable electronics products.

The new High Speed SD Cards are initially available in densities of 128MB and 256MB, and are designated SD-F1284B1 and SD-F2564B1, respectively. TAEC showcased the cards at the Consumer Electronics Show, held Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas.

Toshiba's High Speed SD Memory Cards are based on Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND Flash technology, which stores one bit per cell, and utilize an optimized controller combined with large block NAND technology to achieve high data transfer rates. Toshiba's standard SD Memory Cards range in performance from 32MB to 512MB featuring Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash from 64MB to 512MB. MLC NAND Flash allows each memory cell to store two bits of information, compared to one bit-per-cell for SLC NAND Flash, and provides excellent cost/performance value well-suited for use with a wide range of low to highend digital still cameras, video cameras, cell phones, USB Flash drives, car navigation systems, electronic books and MP3 players.

"SD Memory Cards continue to grow in popularly for a wide range of applications," said Brian Kumagai, business development manager for NAND Flash memory at TAEC. "Toshiba developed this new line of High Speed SD Cards with faster write speeds to meet the needs of higher performance applications such as digital video, and faster downloading of digital content such as music and motion pictures. Professional photographers and avid hobbyists using high resolution digital still cameras can also benefit from these higher performing cards."

The industry-standard cards are packaged in the postage stamp sized SD card format, which measures 32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm. Toshiba's High Speed SD Memory cards are white to help users distinguish them from the company's standard SD Memory Cards, packaged in blue. The new SD cards employ Toshiba's advanced security technology to provide key enhancements over traditional flash cards such as cryptographic security, improved protection of copyrighted data, high data transfer rate for fast copy/download, and high storage capacity. The new cards, along with Toshiba's line of standard SD cards, complement Toshiba's comprehensive line of solid state storage cards which also include CompactFlash, SmartMedia and PC ATA form factors.