SmartMedia

SmartMedia (SM; rarely SSFDC (Solid State Floppy Disk Card) ) is a digital storage medium in Flash technology, which has been used in digital cameras, MP3 - players, keyboards, sequencers, groove boxes, and digital recording equipment. The storage capacity is between 2 and 128 MB. SmartMedia are no longer manufactured, but there are still remnants in the trade.

The SmartMedia card was developed in 1996 by Toshiba.

Properties

In this type of memory card, the controller is not included on the map, but must be in the drive, that is, in the digital camera or eg PCMCIA adapter be accommodated. The built- in controller devices typically support only cards up to a certain size. In a few cases, a firmware update to raise the maximum supported capacity. In addition, only cards can be used with the supported power supply (new: 3.3V, old: 5 V ).

The card is 45 mm × 37 mm × 0.76 mm in size, about 2 grams and has 22 contacts. The data transfer speed is 0.8 MB / s The operating voltage of the SmartMedia card was initially set at 5 V, newer models are powered by 3.3V. The 5- V version it was in capacities up to 4 MB, which are 3.3 - V version is up to 128 MB memory volume. The 5 volt cards are recognizable by the slanted top left corner. In the 3.3 volt cards this is the top right.

Multi- card readers are automatically set to 3.3 volts as well as 5-volt memory cards. You enter with a switch which corner is chamfered and check whether contact 17 ( top center ) with the conductive contacts 12 (top left ) and 22 is connected ( top right).

As the successor to the SmartMedia card to the xD -Picture Card may be considered, since it is largely propagated by the same device manufacturers such as the SmartMedia card. The lack of production of SmartMedia cards made ​​despite low demand for a price increase, while popular memory cards have fallen in recent years, massively in price.

Increasingly, only the 3.3 volt version is supported by current card readers. The 5 volt version can no longer insert correctly in such devices.

Susceptibility

Due to the large, unprotected lying on the top contacts the SmartMedia card is relatively susceptible to electrostatic discharges. Touching the contacts with the Thalfingen, rubbing with a woolen cloth and other occasions where static electricity may be generated or transferred are to be avoided. Contact with surfaces in any form also lead to invisible contaminants that may manifest itself up to data loss in odd -errors. A made ​​necessary by cleaning pollution poses additional risk of damage from electrostatic discharge.

At the time when SmartMedia cards were a common storage medium, there were frequent data losses and write and reader error when using the card into a memory card reader. It then appeared no closer unexplained problems with the Low Level Format. With the help of special programs or procedures, a recovery should be possible, it is questionable whether these programs work together even with today's operating systems.

To avoid such risks, it is instead better not to run the card in card readers, but to connect the peripheral device directly to the computer and read the map on this path, if that is possible.

Specifications

  • Weight: 2g
  • Size: 45.0 × 37.0 × 0.76 mm
  • Available capacity: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 MB
  • NAND Flash memory chips
  • Terminal with 22 pins
  • 8 -bit I / O interface (also 16 -bit I / O interface)
  • Data transfer rate: 2MB / s
  • Number of guaranteed write cycles per logical block: 1 million
  • Data retention without power supply: at least 10 years
  • Switchable read- only metallized sticker on the contacts
Electronic keyboard Music sequencer Groovebox Controller (computing) Flash memory#NAND memories Microdrive
734727
de