memory stickMemory Stick A memory stick records all sorts of digital data on a single stick. It is an Integrated Circuit (IC) that serves as a recording medium. Digital content includes music, still and moving images, videos, computer data, etc. The idea behind memory stick is a portable memory design in a compact lightweight form. This allows exchanging digital data among various devices with much more ease and reliability.

Memory Stick Technology

Memory sticks are based on IC recording media that is also known as silicon media. In IC recording media an integrated circuit (IC) stores the information. This provides more compactness, capacity, high-speed read / write, and more importunately copyright protection feature. The technology used for memory stick is FLASH.

Memory Stick Magic Gate technology

Memory stick standards support magic gate technology. Magic Gates are the microchips based on the copy protection technology. Sony introduced magic gates in 1999. Magic gate chips are integrated in both the memory sticks and the supporting device. This restricts the memory stick to work only with the authorized devices.

Memory Stick Standards and Form Factors

Sony first introduced memory Stick in October 1998. Now SanDisk and Lexar are its third party licensees. Three standards of memory stick have been developed so far. These include Standard and Pro, Duo and Pro Duo, and Micro memory sticks.

Standard / Original Memory Stick

The original memory stick had a capacity of 4 MB to 128 MB. Later version included memory stick select. With this option two 128 MB memory sticks can be used as 256 MB memory stick. Memory stick select is not common these days. Lexar still manufactures Memory stick Select. It is available in the form factor of 50 mm (Width) x 21.5 mm (Height) x 2.8 mm (Depth). It offers maximum write speed of 14.4 Mega bits per second (Mbps) and maximum read speed of 19.6 Mbps.

Memory Stick Pro

Memory Stick Pro was launched in 2003. It was a joint venture of Sony and SanDisk. Memory Stick Pro offers storing capacity up to 32 GB. Also it provides greater transfer speed. Transfer Speed of memory stick pro is 160 Mega bits per second (Mbps). It is backward compatible. It is quite expensive than other Flash memories such as Compact FLASH and SD (secure digital) cards. Memory stick pro is available in the same form factor as standard memory stick.

Memory Stick Duo

Memory Stick Duo is the smaller form factor than memory stick pro. These are available in all capacities as other memory sticks. Higher capacity memory stick duos are known as memory stick pro duos. Memory stick pro duos are common in pocket sized digital cameras, cell phones, and Sony's PSP handheld game consoles.