Hsin Tien, Taiwan — The tiny MultiMediaCard flash memory format is getting a makeover, courtesy of the Power Digital Card company, based here, and Samsung Electronics.
The two companies collaborated on the technical design of the new, Reduced Sized MMC (RS-MMC) aimed at fitting into the decreasing dimensions of next generation cellphones, PDAs and digital cameras.
Power Digital Card will ship the industry’s first 128MB RS-MMC in the third quarter of this year under its own Power Digital Card brand name, as well as manufacturer the card for third parties. Pricing has not been determined.
The RS-MMC has a form factor of 24mm by 18mm, approximately half the size of a standard 24mm by 32mm MMC. The RS-MMC will be backward-compatible with standard MMC through an extender.
A 256MB RS-MMC and 512MB standard sized MMC are expected to follow in the fourth quarter from both PDC and Samsung. By the end of the year, both companies’ product line of RS-MMCs will include 8MB to 256MB cards and 8MB to 512MB standard MMCs.
