Embedded SD Memory to Appear Soon in Portable Devices

The SD (Secure Digital) is among the world's most popular types of memory card formats, if not the most popular. The number of electronic devices that use SD cards for storage purposes is absolutely huge, and that's the reason why the SD Card Association has decided to make a step forward in the format's evolution and announced that it plans to enter the embedded storage market with the Embedded SD standard for storage devices in November.

As the statements from the SD Card Association informs us, what this Embedded SD standard does is simplify system engineering by leveraging well-known SD standards. It allows all removable, embedded storage devices and input/output (I/O) peripherals to utilize the same common interface. By regulating the specifications of SD interface-based embedded flash devices, this standard is supposed to make the integration of storage devices a lot easier, thus providing very valuable help to the mobile and CE industries.

Additionally, the Embedded SD separates flash management from the host and provides manufacturers and consumers with the flexibility of up to 32 GB scalable high-capacity on-board memory, plus 32 GB of removable memory with any SD High-Capacity memory card.

"The miniSD and microSD form factors are the leading interfaces for removable storage cards for mobile handsets, currently dominating the market, and are expected to constitute 90 percent of all card slots in mobile handsets in 2010, according to our analysis," said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst for iSuppli Corp. "The new Embedded SD standard is built on that leading SD standard and takes aim at mobile handset storage needs like low power consumption, boot functionality, small form factor and integrated flash management."

What Mr. Kim's statement translates into is that this new standard will make things a lot easier for the manufacturers and designers of CE devices and mobile phones. Of course, things will also be a lot better for users as well, since their products will deliver more storage space and also a superior level of reliability.


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