As if it wasn't enough that MMC storage cards are among the smallest on the market, the MultiMediaCard Association has now approved a reduced-size standard of half the size.
A reduced-size standard for MultiMediaCards (MMC) was approved at the MultiMediaCard Association's recent membership meeting in Boston, according to Andy Prophet, the Executive Director of the trade organization. The new Reduced Size MultiMediaCards (RS-MMC) will store data for mobile phones in a form factor that is slightly bigger than one-half the size of the standard MultiMediaCard, adding yet another form factor to an already crowded market of storage cards.
The new cards will be manufactured and marketed by various members of the MMCA with density ranges of 16/32/64 Mbytes available immediately, expanding to 128 and 256 MB later in 2003. Both standard and RS-MMCs have seven pins and can be used in existing platforms, however, the MMCA believes the new RS-MMCs will find most acceptance in next-generation smart mobile phones.
Dimensions of the reduced size cards are 24 x 18 x 1.4 mm, reduced from 24 x 32 x 1.4 mm in existing cards. The reduced size cards are aimed at mobile phone makers who produce next generation devices where space and power are at a premium, and since RS-MMC cards will work in the same way current MMC cards do it will be fully possible to take a card from a mobile phone and insert it into a digital camera and vice versa.
Reduced size cards can be used in a full size MultiMediaCard slot with a simple mechanical expander that will make the card "regain" a full size format, a method already common to allow CompactFlash cards to work in PCMCIA slots in laptops and portables.
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