A Year Ago: Electronics giants back memory card standard

Matsushita, SanDisk, Toshiba to develop a next generation memory card, for use in digital cameras, mobile phones, other devices

Matsushita, SanDisk and Toshiba announced a new organisation to promote and set standards for the SD (Secure Digital) Memory Card at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Last August the trio announced that they were to develop a next generation memory card, for use in devices such as digital cameras and mobile phones, to be promoted as an industry standard.

The new organisation, called the SD Association (SDA), will have an executive membership of 30 manufacturers and content providers. Among the 71 companies that have planned to join as SDA members are Compaq, RealNetworks, Samsung, Symbian, Microsoft and Liquid Audio.

The SDA will establish technical and specification standards, promote the card to the industry and encourage development of products. The postage stamp sized cards will provide SDMI compliant copyright protection and memory capacity of up to 256MB.

Sampling of the SD cards will start in this quarter, with production expected the following quarter, initially in 32MB and 64MB capacities.

"The SD Memory Card is a vital link to the digital future," said Yoichi Morishita, president of Matsushita Electric in a statement. "When we have a single compatible memory card that can be used in products from PCs to Internet music players, the biggest beneficiary will be the consumer."

For full coverage, see the CES News Special.

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