More Memory for Memories

By Greg Scoblete On Feb 21 2005 - 8:00am

Flash manufacturers continue to emphasize performance and capacity gains as they unveiled new iterations of the “digital film” so essential to digital photography.

AgfaPhoto has entered the flash memory market with a line of AgfaPhoto-branded SD, CompactFlash, MMC, Memory Stick and SmartMedia. The cards will range in capacity from 64MB to 1GB. Pricing and availability were not announced. The company will also ship a line of USB 2.0 flash drives, called USB Stick.

Lexar added Memory Stick PRO and a high-speed SD card to its Professional Series line of high-end flash memory cards. The PRO card is speed rated at 80x with a minimum sustained read/write speed of 12MBps. It will ship in 512MB and 1GB capacities. The SD clocks in at 60x and will be available in capacities up to 1GB.

The entire Professional Series line gets new packaging.

Olympus announced a ship date for its previously announced 1GB xD-Picture Card. It will ship in April; pricing was still to be determined.

The company also introduced a USB 2.0 reader/writer for xD cards, the MAUSB-300. It offers a read speed of 3.5MBps and a write speed of 0.5MBps. It will ship in March for an estimated $19.99.

PNY Technologies will ship its new Optima line of high-end CompactFlash and SD memory cards in the second quarter.

The CompactFlash will offer a read/write speed of up to 12MB/10MBps and will be available in capacities from 128MB to 4GB, which will retail for a suggested $499.99.

The SD cards will sport a read/write speed of 10MB/8MBps and will be available in 128MB to 1GB capacities. The 1GB will retail for a suggested $99.99.

The company also released a new riff in the USB flash drive market — college-specific models. PNY's Collegiate Attaché line of USB 2.0 drives will be custom-printed with college and university logos via the company's build-to-order program. The drives will ship in the second quarter in initial capacities of 256MB.