SmartMedia
Encyclopedia
SmartMedia is a flash
memory card
standard owned by Toshiba
, with capacities ranging from 2 MB to 128 MB. SmartMedia memory cards are no longer manufactured.
, CompactFlash
, and PC card
formats. Although memory cards are nowadays associated with digital camera
s, digital audio players, PDAs
, and similar devices, SmartMedia was pitched as a successor to the computer floppy disk
. Indeed, the format was originally named Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC). The SSFDC forum, a consortium aiming to promote SSFDC as an industry standard, was founded in April 1996, consisting of 37 initial members.
A SmartMedia card consists of a single NAND flash chip embedded in a thin plastic card, although some higher capacity cards contain multiple, linked chips. It was one of the smallest and thinnest of the early memory cards, only 0.76mm thick, and managed to maintain a favorable cost ratio as compared to the others. SmartMedia cards lack a built-in controller chip, which kept the cost down. This feature later caused problems, since some older devices would require firmware updates to handle larger capacity cards. The lack of built-in controller also made it impossible for the card to perform automatic wear levelling
, a process which prevents premature wearout of a sector by mapping the writes to various other sectors in the card.
SmartMedia cards can be used in a standard 3.5" floppy drive by means of a FlashPath
adapter. This is possibly the only way of obtaining flash memory functionality with very old hardware, and it remains one of SmartMedia's most distinctive features. This method's big drawback is that it is very slow. Read/write is limited to floppy disk speeds, meaning that copying 64 megabytes of data using this method is a very tedious process, although usually preferable to not copying the data at all.
Typically, SmartMedia cards were used as storage for portable devices, in a form that could easily be removed for access by a PC
. For example, pictures taken with a digital camera
would be stored as image files on a SmartMedia card. A user could copy the images to a computer with a SmartMedia reader. A reader was typically a small box connected via USB or some other serial connection. Modern computers, both laptops and desktops, will occasionally have SmartMedia slots built in. While availability of dedicated SmartMedia readers has dropped off, readers that read multiple card types (such as 4-in-1, 10-in-1) continue to include the format, but even these have decreased in quantity, with many dropping SmartMedia in favour of MicroSD and/or Memory Stick Micro.
SmartMedia was popular in digital cameras, and reached its peak in about 2001 when it garnered nearly half of the digital camera market. It was backed especially by Fujifilm
and Olympus
, though the format started to exhibit problems as camera resolutions increased. Cards larger than 128 MB were not available, and the compact digital cameras were reaching a size where even SmartMedia cards were too big to be convenient. Eventually Toshiba
switched to smaller, higher-capacity Secure Digital card
s, and SmartMedia ceased to have major support after Olympus
and Fujifilm
both switched to xD
. It did not find as much support in PDAs
, MP3 Players, or Pager
s as some other formats, especially in North America and Europe, though there was still significant use.
SmartMedia cards larger than 128 MB
were never released, although there were rumors of a 256 MB card being planned. Technical specifications for the memory size were released, and the 256 MB cards were even advertised in some places. Some older devices cannot support cards larger than 16 or sometimes 32 MB
without a firmware update, if at all. Smartmedia is a textbook case of shortsighted design priorities; its 128 megabyte capacity successfully beat that of a floppy disk, in a smaller space, but not by a sufficient amount to overwhelm competing memory card formats. Compared to the CompactFlash
card, SmartMedia cards were small, or at least thin, but unfortunately had none of CF's capacity and flexibility.
SmartMedia cards came in two formats, 5 V and the more modern 3.3 V (sometimes marked 3 V), named for their main supply voltages. The packaging was nearly identical, except for the reversed placement of the notched corner. Many older SmartMedia devices only support 5V SmartMedia cards, whereas many newer devices only support 3.3V cards. In order to protect 3.3V cards from being damaged in 5V-only devices, the card reader should have some mechanical provision (such as detecting the type of notch) to disallow insertion of an unsupported type of card. Some low-cost, 5V-only card readers do not operate this way, and inserting a 3.3V card into such a 5V-only reader will result in permanent damage to the card. Dual-voltage card readers are highly recommended.
There is an oversized xD-to-SmartMedia adapter that allows xD cards to use a SmartMedia port, but it does not fit entirely inside a SmartMedia slot. There is a limit on the capacity of the xD card when used in such adapters (sometimes 128 MB or 256 MB), and the device is subject to the restrictions of the SmartMedia reader as well.
SmartMedia memory cards are no longer manufactured. There have been no new devices designed for SmartMedia for quite a long time now. Old stocks of new 128MB cards can be obtained from specialist suppliers while their supplies last.
, which used it to protect commercial titles for the GP32
handheld gaming system.
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
memory card
Memory card
A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...
standard owned by Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
, with capacities ranging from 2 MB to 128 MB. SmartMedia memory cards are no longer manufactured.
History
The SmartMedia format was launched in the summer of 1995 to compete with the MiniCardMiniature Card
Miniature Card or MiniCard is a flash or SRAM memory card standard first promoted by Intel Corp. in 1995 and backed by Advanced Micro Devices, Fujitsu and Sharp Electronics. Miniature Card Implementers Forum promoted this standard for consumer electronics: PDA/Palmtops, Digital Audio Recorders,...
, CompactFlash
CompactFlash
CompactFlash is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. Most CompactFlash devices contain flash memory in a standardized enclosure. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994...
, and PC card
PC card
In computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
formats. Although memory cards are nowadays associated with digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
s, digital audio players, PDAs
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
, and similar devices, SmartMedia was pitched as a successor to the computer floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
. Indeed, the format was originally named Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC). The SSFDC forum, a consortium aiming to promote SSFDC as an industry standard, was founded in April 1996, consisting of 37 initial members.
A SmartMedia card consists of a single NAND flash chip embedded in a thin plastic card, although some higher capacity cards contain multiple, linked chips. It was one of the smallest and thinnest of the early memory cards, only 0.76mm thick, and managed to maintain a favorable cost ratio as compared to the others. SmartMedia cards lack a built-in controller chip, which kept the cost down. This feature later caused problems, since some older devices would require firmware updates to handle larger capacity cards. The lack of built-in controller also made it impossible for the card to perform automatic wear levelling
Wear levelling
Wear leveling is a technique for prolonging the service life of some kinds of erasable computer storage media, such as Flash memory used in solid-state drives and USB Flash drives...
, a process which prevents premature wearout of a sector by mapping the writes to various other sectors in the card.
SmartMedia cards can be used in a standard 3.5" floppy drive by means of a FlashPath
FlashPath
FlashPath were a series of devices produced by SanDisk that allowed a variety of memory cards to be used in a 3.5" Floppy disk drive. The initial version introduced in May 1998 allowed SmartMedia cards to be used with a floppy drive. Later, Memory Stick and Secure Digital/Multi Media Card versions...
adapter. This is possibly the only way of obtaining flash memory functionality with very old hardware, and it remains one of SmartMedia's most distinctive features. This method's big drawback is that it is very slow. Read/write is limited to floppy disk speeds, meaning that copying 64 megabytes of data using this method is a very tedious process, although usually preferable to not copying the data at all.
Typically, SmartMedia cards were used as storage for portable devices, in a form that could easily be removed for access by a PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. For example, pictures taken with a digital camera
Digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
would be stored as image files on a SmartMedia card. A user could copy the images to a computer with a SmartMedia reader. A reader was typically a small box connected via USB or some other serial connection. Modern computers, both laptops and desktops, will occasionally have SmartMedia slots built in. While availability of dedicated SmartMedia readers has dropped off, readers that read multiple card types (such as 4-in-1, 10-in-1) continue to include the format, but even these have decreased in quantity, with many dropping SmartMedia in favour of MicroSD and/or Memory Stick Micro.
SmartMedia was popular in digital cameras, and reached its peak in about 2001 when it garnered nearly half of the digital camera market. It was backed especially by Fujifilm
Fujifilm
is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...
and Olympus
Olympus Corporation
is a Japan-based manufacturer of optics and reprography products. Olympus was established on 12 October 1919, initially specializing in microscope and thermometer businesses. Its global headquarters are in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, while its USA operations are based in Center Valley, Pennsylvania,...
, though the format started to exhibit problems as camera resolutions increased. Cards larger than 128 MB were not available, and the compact digital cameras were reaching a size where even SmartMedia cards were too big to be convenient. Eventually Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
switched to smaller, higher-capacity Secure Digital card
Secure Digital card
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
s, and SmartMedia ceased to have major support after Olympus
Olympus Corporation
is a Japan-based manufacturer of optics and reprography products. Olympus was established on 12 October 1919, initially specializing in microscope and thermometer businesses. Its global headquarters are in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, while its USA operations are based in Center Valley, Pennsylvania,...
and Fujifilm
Fujifilm
is a multinational photography and imaging company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.Fujifilm's principal activities are the development, production, sale and servicing of color photographic film, digital cameras, photofinishing equipment, color paper, photofinishing chemicals, medical imaging...
both switched to xD
XD-Picture Card
xD-Picture Card is a flash memory card format, used mainly in older digital cameras. xD stands for Extreme Digital.xD cards are available in capacities of 16 MiB up to 2 GiB.- History :...
. It did not find as much support in PDAs
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
, MP3 Players, or Pager
Pager
A pager is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then requested to call...
s as some other formats, especially in North America and Europe, though there was still significant use.
SmartMedia cards larger than 128 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
were never released, although there were rumors of a 256 MB card being planned. Technical specifications for the memory size were released, and the 256 MB cards were even advertised in some places. Some older devices cannot support cards larger than 16 or sometimes 32 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
without a firmware update, if at all. Smartmedia is a textbook case of shortsighted design priorities; its 128 megabyte capacity successfully beat that of a floppy disk, in a smaller space, but not by a sufficient amount to overwhelm competing memory card formats. Compared to the CompactFlash
CompactFlash
CompactFlash is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. Most CompactFlash devices contain flash memory in a standardized enclosure. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994...
card, SmartMedia cards were small, or at least thin, but unfortunately had none of CF's capacity and flexibility.
There is an oversized xD-to-SmartMedia adapter that allows xD cards to use a SmartMedia port, but it does not fit entirely inside a SmartMedia slot. There is a limit on the capacity of the xD card when used in such adapters (sometimes 128 MB or 256 MB), and the device is subject to the restrictions of the SmartMedia reader as well.
SmartMedia memory cards are no longer manufactured. There have been no new devices designed for SmartMedia for quite a long time now. Old stocks of new 128MB cards can be obtained from specialist suppliers while their supplies last.
Copy protection
Many SmartMedia cards include a little-known copy protection feature known as "ID". This is why many cards are marked with "ID" beside the capacity. This gave every card a unique identification number for use with copy protection systems. The only known use of this primitive DRM system was the Korean company Game ParkGame Park
Game Park is a South Korean company that was founded in 1996 and went bankrupt in March 2007. It is responsible for creating the GP32 and the never-released XGP. Gamepark Holdings was founded by former employees of Game Park in 2005.-Foundation:...
, which used it to protect commercial titles for the GP32
GP32
The GP32 is a handheld game console developed by the Korean company Game Park. It was released on November 23, 2001, in South Korea only.- Overview :The GP32 is based on a 133 MHz ARM CPU and 8 MB of RAM...
handheld gaming system.
Format errors & data loss
SmartMedia cards frequently become corrupted and unusable when the cards are read / written in a card reading device. Affected SmartMedia cards will be unusable and the camera or device will be unable to format, read or write to the card. Data loss and a change in the capacity that the device displays are also signs of a low level format corruption or a corrupted CIS (Card Information System). The majority of these card format errors can be repaired and the data or photos can be recovered. A low level format with the proper software and equipment can return the SmartMedia memory card to its proper working order. With some research on the internet one can find several sources of information and companies that provide a SmartMedia card repair service. Considering the dwindling supply of SmartMedia memory format, these corrupted cards and the devices they support are needlessly being discarded. The majority of corrupted or unusable SmartMedia cards can be repaired.Specifications
- Weight: 2 g
- Size: 45.0 × 37.0 × 0.76 mm
- Capacities: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 MB
- Uses 16-Mbit, 32-Mbit, and 64-Mbit Toshiba TC58-compatible NAND-type flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
chipsIntegrated circuitAn integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material... - Flat electrode terminal with 22 pins — (32M & 64M compatible)
- 8-bit I/OI/OI/O may refer to:* Input/output, a system of communication for information processing systems* Input-output model, an economic model of flow prediction between sectors...
InterfaceComputer busIn computer architecture, a bus is a subsystem that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers.Early computer buses were literally parallel electrical wires with multiple connections, but the term is now used for any physical arrangement that provides the same...
(16-bit in some cases) - Data transfer rate: 2MB/s
- 1,000,000 write cycles
- ten year storage time without power
- metallic write-protect sticker
- Compatible with PCMCIAPC cardIn computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
with an adapterAdapter (computing)In computing, adapter is a hardware device or software component that converts transmitted data from one presentation form to another. The data presentation can be, for example, a message sent between objects in an application or a packet sent through a network.In modern personal computer, almost... - Compatible with CompactFlash Type II with an adapter
- Compatible with 3.5" Floppy drive using FlashPathFlashPathFlashPath were a series of devices produced by SanDisk that allowed a variety of memory cards to be used in a 3.5" Floppy disk drive. The initial version introduced in May 1998 allowed SmartMedia cards to be used with a floppy drive. Later, Memory Stick and Secure Digital/Multi Media Card versions...
adapter
See also
- Comparison of memory cardsComparison of memory cardsThis table provides summary of comparison of various flash memory cards, .- Common information :-Physical details:Note that a memory card's dimensions are determined while holding the card with contact pins upwards. The length of cards is often greater than their width...
- Memory cardMemory cardA memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...
- Flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
- CircuitsElectrical networkAn electrical network is an interconnection of electrical elements such as resistors, inductors, capacitors, transmission lines, voltage sources, current sources and switches. An electrical circuit is a special type of network, one that has a closed loop giving a return path for the current...
External links
- SSFDC News Site with PDF document listing news of the 256 MB SmartMedia card technical specifications being released in SmartMedia NEWS 2002.1 NO.1
- Olympus Emporium page on xD/SM to PCMCIA adapter
- SmartMedia format introduction (software considerations)
- SmartMedia card pinout