Have you ever wondered what these little chips are? Confused by the names?

We are here to help you.

This article is about the various memory components available on the market for mobile phones.

Memory card

MS Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, released by Sony in October 1998, and is also used generally to describe the entire family of Memory Sticks. This family includes Memory Stick Pro, a revision that enables higher maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds, and Memory Stick Duo, a small form factor version of Memory Stick.

50.0 × 21.5 × 2.8mm

Memory Stick Duo

MS duo

31.0 × 20.0 × 1.6mm

The Memory Stick Duo, which is slightly smaller than the competition’s Secure Digital format, was developed in response to Sony’s need for a smaller flash memory card for digital cameras and pocket cell phones, as well as the PSP. from sony. Memory Stick Duos are available in the same variants as their larger cousins ​​(regular limited to 128MB, larger Pro Sticks, with and without high-speed mode, with and without MagicGate support) and a simple adapter (often sold along with the Memory Stick Duo) allows a Duo to be used on any device that can accept its larger cousins.

Micro M2 memory card

15.0 × 12.5 × 1.2mm

In a joint venture with SanDisk, Sony announced a new Memory Stick format on September 30, 2005. The new Memory Stick M2 (“micro”) measures 15 × 12.5 × 1.2 mm and could theoretically hold 32 GB on the future. The maximum transfer speed is 160 MB/s. It will come with an adapter, just like the Duo Sticks, to ensure compatibility with current Pro devices.

Multimedia card

CMM

32×24×1.5mm

The MMC card or MultiMediaCard was introduced in 1997 by SanDisk Corporation and Siemens AG. At the time, the MMC card was the smallest memory card, about the size of a postage stamp, on the market based on flash memory technology. MMC card is very similar to Secure Digital memory card, actually SD memory card is based on MMC card. They have almost the same form factor, the only differences being that SD memory cards are slightly thicker and have a write-protect switch.

Since MMC card had slow transfer speed, 2.5MB/s, compared to other memory cards, mostly compared to SD memory card, a new high-performance version of MMC was introduced in 2005. the MMC card with the name of MMCplus. The MMCplus has today the highest theoretical data transfer speed, up to 52 MB/sec, in the entire memory card industry.

The MultiMediaCard Association announced that by the end of 2005 the secureMMC application will be available only for MMCplus and MMCmobile memory cards. SecureMMC is a copyright protection application that has DRM, Digital Rights Management and VPN, Virtual Private Network capabilities.

Small Media Card

RS-MMC

16×24×1.5mm

MMCmobile (RS-MMC)

RS-MMC, the Small Size MultiMediaCard, was introduced in 2003 by the MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) as the second form factor memory card in the MultiMediaCard family. RS-MMC is a smaller version of the standard MMC card, about half the size, and was specifically designed for use by mobile phones and other small portable devices.

Dual Voltage Small Media Card

DV RS-MMC

16×24×1.5mm

In 2005 the dual voltage (DV) RS-MMC was introduced. It is basically the same card as the standard RS-MMC, but it works with dual voltage, 1.8V and 3.3V, which reduces power consumption, contributing to a longer battery life of the host devices. . DV RS-MMC and RS-MMC are fully compatible with each other, but since some mobile phones, mostly from Nokia, only work with 1.8V cards, normal RS-MMC will not work. We recommend always buying the dual voltage RS-MMC to be sure that your memory card will work with the electronic device.

MMCmicro card

MMCmicro

12×14×1.1mm

The MMCmicro, formerly known as the S-CARD introduced by Samsung, was adopted and introduced in 2005 by the MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) as the third form factor memory card in the MultiMediaCard family. MMCmicro is the smallest memory card, about the size of a fingernail, in the MultiMediaCard family and one of the smallest in the world. It was specifically designed to be used on mobile phones and other small portable devices.

The MMCmicro memory card is available with an adapter, MMCplus. This makes it not only compatible with all MMC and MMCplus slots, but also with all SD memory card slots. It is important to note that music stored on MultiMediaCards cannot be played when inserted into an SD memory card slot due to copyright protection features supported by SD slots.

Since MMCmicro is the latest memory card developed and introduced to the market, it is still not so compatible with many mobile phones and electronic devices. Still, it is expected to be one of the dominating memory card formats in the mobile phone industry between the leading microSD and the developing Memory Stick Micro.

secure digital card

South Dakota

32 × 24 × 2.1mm

SD or Secure Digital memory card was introduced in 2001 by SanDisk Corporation, Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. The SD memory card was based on the MultiMediaCard, MMC memory card standard and has almost the same form factor, the size of a postage stamp, the only differences are that the SD memory card is slightly thicker and has a write protect switch. Since MMC cards are thinner than SD memory cards, they can be used in all SD memory card slots, but not the other way around.

SD memory card is nowadays the most used memory card. It can be found in most digital cameras, PDAs, and many other electronic devices. SD memory card slots can be used for more than flash memory cards. SDIO, Secure Digital In & Out, is the general name for the many expansion modules that can be found in the SD memory card form factor. SDIO modules can be inserted into the slot and used for other functions such as Bluetooth adapters, GPS receivers, digital cameras, TV tuners, etc.

miniSD card

miniSD

21.5×20×1.4mm

The miniSD was introduced in 2003 by the SanDisk Corporation in cooperation with Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. Later that year, the SD Card Association ported the miniSD format as the second form factor memory card in the Secure Digital family. MiniSD is a smaller version of the SD memory card format, approximately 60% smaller in volume, and offers the same benefits that the SD memory card expects from the write-protect switch.

MiniSD was specifically designed to be used in small portable electronic devices such as digital cameras and mobile phones. But since all miniSD memory cards always come with an SD memory card adapter, they are compatible with all SD memory card slots and thus provide compatibility with the ever-increasing number of card-compatible devices. of SD memory on the market.

MiniSD was the second memory card, after SD Memory Card, to be supported by the SD Card Association, which today consists of three members. In 2005, the microSD card was introduced as the third and smallest member of the Secure Digital family.

microSD card also known as Transflash

µSD

11×15×1mm

rashFlash, formerly known as T-Flash, was introduced by SanDisk Corporation in 2004 as the world’s smallest memory card, about the size of a fingernail. TransFlash was specifically designed to be used on mobile phones. Motorola was the first mobile phone manufacturer to adopt the TransFlash memory card standard.

In the third quarter of 2005, the SD Card Association ported TransFlash as the third form factor memory card in the Secure Digital family, after the SD and miniSD memory card. After adoption, TransFlash was renamed microSD. The microSD has exactly the same dimensions and specifications as the TransFlash and therefore both memory cards are completely compatible with each other.

Today, microSD is the most commonly used memory card in mobile phones and the goal of the SD Card Association is to make microSD a de facto standard memory card for all mobile phones. All TransFlash and microSD cards always come with an SD memory card adapter, making them compatible with all SD memory card slots. The microSD is about 10% in size compared to the SD memory card and about 30% compared to the miniSD.

xD-Picture Card

xd

20×25×1.7mm

The xD-Picture Card was introduced in 2002 by Fuji Film and Olympus as a replacement for the older SmartMedia card. It is produced exclusively by Toshiba and can only be found under the Fuji Film and Olympus brand.

The xD-Picture Card format was developed for use in digital cameras and is more or less only used in Fuji Film and Olympus digital cameras. Like the SmartMedia card, the xD-Picture Card does not incorporate a controller chip, allowing it to have a small form factor, but at the same time it is dependent on the host device’s controller chip.