MultiMediaCard Association releases MMCmicro specifications

The MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) today announced that it has finalized the MMCmicro specification at its recent Summer General Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland.

The new MMCmicro Cards represent the third MultiMediaCard form factor, along with MMCplus and MMCmobile Cards. Measuring 12x14x1.1 mm, they are about one-third the size of MMCmobile Cards.

Tne new MMCmicro card format adds to the multitude of different formats in the market, including the MMCA own models, plus SD, miniSD, microSD (TransFlash), Memory Stick (in all its formats) and others.

According to the MMCA, the MMCmicro Card standard is designed to meet requirements for data storage in mobile phones. It operates at either 3.3 volts or 1.8 volts and is capable of data transfer rate of up to 26MB/s (megabytes per second). In addition, 1GB (gigabytes) of flash memory can be packaged into an MMCmicro Card with existing NAND Flash technology.

The MMCmicro Cards are similar in size to embedded flash memory, but are removable to allow for upgrading to different memory capacities and be interoperable with other consumer electronics devices.

The MMCmicro Card standard was originally proposed by Samsung Electronics Co. for adoption by the MMCA. Samsung and other companies have begun mass-producing the cards since March. MMCmicro Cards in densities up to 1GB will be available this year, with 2GB and 4GB expected in late '06 and mid '07, respectively