SanDisk and Sony have today announced the development of the new 'Pro-HG' Memory Stick format which is designed to deliver faster continuous write speeds (up to 60 MB/sec) and larger capacities. This new format appears to be aimed more at future flash based video recorders. It would appear as though this new format will only be available in the 'Duo' size.

Press Release:
SANDISK AND SONY DEVELOP "MEMORY STICK PRO-HG" FORMAT
IC recording media with high-speed writing and data transfer capability



SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Sony Corporation today announced the development of the "Memory Stick PRO-HG" format expanded from the "Memory Stick PRO" format.

The continuing increase in the capacity of IC recording media has broadened its usage as a practical way to store high-resolution digital photos, music and video content (from the Internet or TV programs) on portable devices that are designed to handle digital entertainment content. The demand for real-time recording and transfer of multiple gigabytes of data using IC recording media is expected to increase rapidly, due to the growing popularity of high resolution video and digital still image applications.

"Memory Stick PRO-HG" media offers high performance to meet the stringent demands of end users. This new media format uses an enhanced, 8-bit parallel interface in addition to a conventional serial and 4-bit parallel interface. The interface clock frequency also increases to 60MHz from 40MHz. This means that maximum data transfer speed increases up to 480Mbps, or 60MB/s (theoretical value), three times as fast as that of "Memory Stick PRO" media. The minimum write speed at 8-bit parallel transfer is 120 Mbps, or 15MB/s*1. These enhancements allow large data amounts of up to several gigabytes to be quickly transferred, as well as the real-time recording of high-resolution video and still images.

Since "Memory Stick PRO-HG" is an extended format of the "Memory Stick PRO" format, "Memory Stick PRO-HG" compliant host devices support the conventional "Memory Stick PRO" media as well as "Memory Stick PRO-HG" media. In addition, the "Memory Stick PRO-HG" media can be used conventional "Memory Stick PRO" compliant host devices as well as "Memory Stick PRO-HG" compliant host devices. *2

Licensing for the development of "Memory Stick PRO-HG" compliant host devices is scheduled to commence in January 2007.

"Sony and SanDisk share the common goal of providing exciting new digital audio and video applications to consumers," said Eli Harari, Chairman and CEO of SanDisk Corporation. "This is the driving force that is behind our relentless efforts to leverage our expertise and extensive intellectual property in flash memory cards to develop the Memory Stick PRO-HG. I am proud of the close cooperation we have with Sony over the years and look forward to seeing the exciting new products that Memory Stick PRO-HG media enable."

Akira Kubota, President of Core Component Business Unit, Sony Corporation said "Sony has successfully collaborated with SanDisk Corporation in promoting the Memory Stick formats. Significant milestones have been the Memory Stick PRO format in 2003 and the Memory Stick Micro in 2005. I am delighted by today's joint announcement of the Memory Stick PRO-HG format. This new IC recording media allows the speedy sharing of high definition video and digital still camera data between products." Through the introduction of this new format, Memory Stick will greatly expand its entertainment applications.

Since the September 1998 market introduction of Memory Stick, cumulative shipments of media have achieved 200 million units as of September 2006*3. The Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo media will be made available in 2007.

More info: dpreview

up to 32GB!! yummy. Now do it for other format

That really is amazing 32GB solid state and in that size jez I still remember my quantum big foot HDD took up the entire drive bay and was just over 1GB.

It would be interesting to see some pic’s of the chips that will be used.
Sounds like a great idea for video recorders get rid of tape and not have to replace it with fragile HDD’s

Why Sony, why?? Am I the only one that has a problem with their proprietary format memory card? They spend so much time developing their own memory type when they could easily adopt something else (SD, CF, hammer/chisle). Why do they insist on making their products incompatible with other more popular formats? Will SD/CF not rise to meet 32GB or more eventually? What will a 32GB memory stick cost? Likely I can choose between a PS3 or this memory card? The memory stick is the reason I left Sony. I was tired of bending over the counter when I would buy a 1GB memory stick for roughly 2-3 times what a comparable sized SD/CF card cost.

Please, someone, save me! I'm having flashbacks......