Taiwan's miCard chosen as global memory card standard

Taiwan's miCard chosen as global memory card standard

Brian Maher on 02 June 2007 - 14:29 · 24 comments & 8708 views

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A Taiwanese research institute has produced a new global memory card standard, called the miCard (Multiple Interface Card), designed to work in smaller consumer gadgets such as digital cameras, mobile phones and any device with a USB plug, which are common on PCs.

The purpose of the card is to make transferring pictures, songs and other data between gadgets and PCs easier. The card won the stamp of approval from the MultiMedia Card Association yesterday and is expected to be available globally starting in the third quarter.

The cards will initially store 8GB, but in the future, may be capable of up to 2TB.

News source: ComputerWorld

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#1 MeWhOeLsE on 02 Jun 2007 - 14:46

Hmm... finally a Hard Drive replacement? Wake me up when we get like 300GB+

(1 reply) #2 Samboini on 02 Jun 2007 - 15:22

2TB for a flash drive? That's insane.

#2.1 well... on 03 Jun 2007 - 12:02

in the same way that we started off with 4mb SD cards and now can easily get 4gb cards?

(2 replies) #3 RangerLG on 02 Jun 2007 - 15:27

That is a lot of pictures on one card.

#3.1 Fire and Flames on 02 Jun 2007 - 22:41

Thats alot of porn on one card

#3.2 Samboini on 03 Jun 2007 - 09:02

That's a lot of anything on one card (within reason).

#4 +majortom1981 on 02 Jun 2007 - 15:35

Im guessing its a memory card with a usb port thing on it?

(2 replies) #5 PureLegend on 02 Jun 2007 - 16:58

This is relevant to my interests.

I wonder how quick they'll be to implement it. Becuase, yeah, standards are good. I thought SD was the standard though, doubt this'll catch on fast...

#5.1 Kushan on 02 Jun 2007 - 19:20

Quote - (PureLegend said @ #5)

This is relevant to my interests.

I wonder how quick they'll be to implement it. Becuase, yeah, standards are good. I thought SD was the standard though, doubt this'll catch on fast...

SD is a proprietary format that you have to pay a license to use (MMC uses the same interface and it's free, but it's slower, so you can use SD cards for free in your devices, but it'll be slow). I'm wondering if this one will be free for all uses or will there be a licensing cost?

#5.2 simon360 on 02 Jun 2007 - 20:53

Quote -

So far, 12 Taiwanese companies have signed on to manufacture the miCard, according to its inventor, the Industrial Technology Research Institute. Officials expect local companies to save $40 million in licensing fees thanks to the card, in addition to profiting from sales. Taiwanese companies will not have to pay royalties to make miCards or related technology.

Seems liike a good thing, in that case.

#6 +mad_onion on 02 Jun 2007 - 17:04

well if this will actually be the standard for all devices then this is great for everyone. i don't know if it's going to work out that way.

#7 Lare2 on 02 Jun 2007 - 18:10

Here hoping sony drops the memory **** from his consumer cameras. I really like their cameras, but stayed away from them just because of the card.

(2 replies) #8 riku0116 on 02 Jun 2007 - 18:20

i wonder how the fast the transfer speeds are tho...
cuz itll take a LONG time to transfer 2TBs of files at 20mb/s

#8.1 noPCtoday on 02 Jun 2007 - 21:28

If it really is like that, It won't be the chosen one. :cP

#8.2 bestbuy on 03 Jun 2007 - 21:15

Quote - (riku0116 said @ #

i wonder how the fast the transfer speeds are tho...
cuz itll take a LONG time to transfer 2TBs of files at 20mb/s

you can't really go much faster than that on a USB 2.0 connection anyway

#9 sundayx on 02 Jun 2007 - 21:14

F CKING FINALLY.

(2 replies) #10 +CrimsonRedMk on 03 Jun 2007 - 01:17

Ah, finally...something to add to my collection of MMC, SD, MiniSD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Compact Flash, Compact Flash II, etc.

I can't wait!
/sarcasm

#10.1 rukiri on 03 Jun 2007 - 07:15

Quote - (CrimsonRedMk said @ #10)

you don't have any microSD cards?? what are you, from 2005?

#10.2 Samboini on 03 Jun 2007 - 09:05

...and no xD; let's not even get started on different speeds too.

But your post sums up why we need one proprietary format, hopefully it will take off and save the consumer a lot of hassle.

#11 Hak Foo on 03 Jun 2007 - 19:17

This sounds like the SD cards they sold for a while with a flip-down shell that revealed a USB connector.

#12 rukiri on 03 Jun 2007 - 20:52

From the original article, it sounds like this is a push by the memory card makers to get in on the act themselves. Sick of paying royalties to sandisk and the like on razor-thin-margin products, they've decided to develop their own standard and make those instead. If this means even *cheaper* flash memory in even *more* devices (i'm assuming readers/writers will be royalty free as well? but that might be wishful thinking..) then I say the king (SD) is dead! Long Live the King! (micards)

#13 .Ali on 03 Jun 2007 - 23:16

I don't really see how u can have a global standard of all memory stick.

(1 reply) #14 MysticSentinel on 04 Jun 2007 - 16:01

From the article:

"Users will not only benefit from the versatility of the card, but also its speed. The miCard will transfer data at 480Mbit/sec, and throughput will improve over time." That works out to 60 MB per second. Not too shabby for a first version.

#14.1 phiberoptik on 04 Jun 2007 - 17:56

Quote - (MysticSentinel said @ #14)

Yea thats USB 2.0 spec, but you know nothing works at the full speed like it is advertised/marketed.. so try.... 20-30mb/s as stated earlier

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Taiwan's miCard chosen as global memory card standard

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