Flash Memory Cards   by Seth Miller

A flash memory card is an electronic, solid-state data storage device that uses flash memory. Flash memory cards are used in a wide range of electronic equipment including digital cameras, telephones, laptops and handheld computers, cellular phones, video game consoles, and music players. They are a very reliable kind of memory device with high capacity, low cost, low power consumption, quietness, a light weight, faster access, and small size.

There are many kinds of flash memory cards available depending upon the capacity, the usage, and the technology needs. Flash memory cards were developed as an alternative to the PC cards, which are now being used only for I/O and industrial applications. Some of the first flash memory cards were the CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and Miniature card. The CompactFlash is still the most popular brand of flash memory cards in use. CompactFlash I and II, SmartMedia card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Micro M2, Multi Media Card, Reduced-size Multi Media Card, MMCMicro Card, Secure Digital Card, miniSD card, microSD card, and x-D Picture card are some of the memory card formats. Some flash memory cards like Sony's Memory Stick, PCMCIA memory cards, and cards used in the N64 (Nintendo), Dreamcast (Sega), and Playstation (Sony) video game consoles are removable.

Flash memory cards are extremely durable. They could survive even when they were subjected to tests that involved being dipped in cola, soaked in coffee, trampled by a skateboard, run over by a child's toy car, and put through a washing machine. Even though some of them gave out when they were smashed by a sledgehammer and nailed to a tree, flash memory cards have proven that they can be extremely reliable even under the most testing physical environments. However, the capacity as well as the cost per megabyte of a flash memory card is much higher than that of a hard disk, which is why hard disks are not completely replaced by flash memory cards.

About the Author

Flash Memory provides detailed information on Flash Memory, Compact Flash Memory, Flash Memory Cards, USB Flash Memory and more. Flash Memory is affliated with Blank CDRs.