Smart Media

Smart Media Overview

Smart Media is one of the Flash memory card standards. It was presented in 1995 and became competitor of CompactFLASH, MiniCard, and PC card. Toshiba owns the Smart Media. It is based on NAND flash technology. It is a small NAND flash chip is embedded in the plastic cover. Smart Media was the in smallest and quite thinner than other memory cards at that time. Thicker smart Media Cards contain more than one NAND flash chips. SmartMedia does not contain a built in controller. This reduces its cost but older devices need firmware updates.

Smart Media Specifications

A smart media card with smallest size 45.0 mm X 37.0 mm X 0.76 mm weighs only 2 grams. It offers data transfer rate of 2 MB /sec with 8 or 16-bit I / O interface. Smart Media cards are available in 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128 MBs of storage capacities. This card consists of 16-Mbit, 32-Mbit, and 64-Mbit NAND Flash chips compatible with Toshiba TC58. Lifetime of a smart media card is ten years.

Smart Media Card Formats

Smart Media Cards are available in two formats. One works at 5 volts while the other at 3 volts. Some Smart Media devices work only at 5 volts, some at 3 volts, and some at both voltage levels. 5-V only card cannot be inserted in 3V-only devices and vice versa.

Smart Media Uses

Smart Media is storage media for portable devices. By the year 2006 it shares the 40% market of digital camera. From camera it can easily be attached to a PC to download images. Computers use smart media card readers to access them. Now multiple card readers are common that can support many card formats such as 4 in 1 or 10 in 1 card readers. Other common uses of Smart Media cards include pagers, PDAs, and mp3 players. Smart Media cards are suitable for applications that do not require voluminous storage.

Smart Media and Other Card Standards

Smart Media card is compatible with PCMCIA and Type II Compact Flash through an adapter. Moreover it can be used with 3.5" Floppy drive via FlashPath Adapter. Smart Media cards offer less capacity than SD or Multimedia cards. But Toshiba and Samsung still develop these cards due to their demand in the market. XD Picture Card can be used in smart media slot through an XD picture to smart media adapter. The maximum XD card size can be 128 or 256.