#Sd memory card formatter review portable#

The SDA approved the final microSD specification on July 13, 2005. SanDisk induced the SDA to administer the microSD standard. The card was originally called T-Flash, but just before product launch, T-Mobile sent a cease-and-desist letter to SanDisk claiming that T-Mobile owned the trademark on T-(anything), and the name was changed to TransFlash.Īt CTIA Wireless 2005, the SDA announced the small microSD form factor along with SDHC secure digital high capacity formatting in excess of 2 GB with a minimum sustained read and write speed of 17.6 Mbit/s. SanDisk conceived microSD when its Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and the CTO of Motorola concluded that current memory cards were too large for mobile phones. Unlike the larger SD cards, microSD does not offer a mechanical write protect switch, thus an operating-system-independent way of write protecting them does not exist in the general case. microSD (and TransFlash) cards are electrically compatible with larger SD cards and can be used in devices that accept SD cards with the help of a passive adapter, which contains no electronic components, only metal traces connecting the two sets of contacts.

TransFlash and microSD cards are functionally identical allowing either to operate in devices made for the other. The microSD removable miniaturized Secure Digital flash memory cards were originally named T-Flash or TF, abbreviations of TransFlash. While the new cards were designed especially for mobile phones, they are usually packaged with a miniSD adapter that provides compatibility with a standard SD memory card slot. The SDA adopted the miniSD card in 2003 as a small form factor extension to the SD card standard. The miniSD form was introduced at March 2003 CeBIT by SanDisk Corporation which announced and demonstrated it. Early samples of the SD card became available in the first quarter of 2000, with production quantities of 32 and 64 MB cards available three months later. The SD Association, headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States, started with about 30 companies and today consists of about 1,000 product manufacturers that make interoperable memory cards and devices. For this reason the D within the logo resembles an optical disc.Īt the 2000 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) trade show, the three companies announced the creation of the SD Association (SDA) to promote SD cards. The trademarked 'SD' logo was originally developed for the Super Density Disc, which was the unsuccessful Toshiba entry in the DVD format war. Developers predicted that DRM would induce wide use by music suppliers concerned about piracy. It was designed to compete with the Memory Stick, a DRM product that Sony had released the year before.

The card was derived from the MultiMediaCard (MMC) and provided digital rights management based on the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) standard and for the time, a high memory density. In 1999, SanDisk, Panasonic (Matsushita), and Toshiba agreed to develop and market the Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card. History 1999–2005: Creation and introduction of smaller formats The SDA uses several trademarked logos owned and licensed by SD-3C to enforce compliance with its specifications and assure users of compatibility. SDA today has approximately 1,000 member companies. The companies also formed the SD Association (SDA), a non-profit organization, in January 2000 to promote and create SD Card standards. The three companies formed SD-3C, LLC, a company that licenses and enforces intellectual property rights associated with SD memory cards and SD host and ancillary products. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDisk, Panasonic (Matsushita) and Toshiba as an improvement over MultiMediaCards (MMCs).

#Sd memory card formatter review portable#

Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. Portable devices, such as digital cameras and mobile phones (including most smartphones)