Lexar's USB FlashCard
posted December 13th 2004 9:00AM
There are a lot of different flash memory card formats out there. CompactFlash. SD. MiniSD. MMC. RS-MMC. TransFlash.
xD-Picture Card. SmartCard. Memory Stick. Memory Stick Pro. Memory Stick Duo. Maybe you're not ready for one more, but
Lexar is hoping that they can persuade everyone to get behind the USB FlashCard, which is about half the width and
twice as thick as an SD card, and has one very important, major difference from every other flash memory card format
out there: it has a built-in USB connector so you can plug it directly to your computer to copy over files, there's no
need for a separate card reader.
We know exactly what you're thinking: Isn't this just a really, really small USB flash drive? Yep, it is, but Lexar
wants the UFC to replace/supplant CompactFlash and SD and they're talking to digital camera, PDA, and MP3 player
manufacturer about putting UFC slots in their gadgets (they're pretty realistic about the slim prospects of UFC
appearing in smartphones); if you had to choose between a camera that used CompactFlash or a camera that used UFC, it'd
be mighty tempting to go with UFC since you would never have to make sure you have a card reader handy to transfer
photos to your computer. To help push things along they're letting anyone who wants to work with the UFC standard
to do it completely royalty-free (though you will have to pay a royalty to make SD cards or put SD slots in
your gear). It'll be a few more months before UFC hits the market, but Lexar says that pricewise it'll be competitive
with CompactFlash, and come in 16MB, 32MB, and 64MB versions that use USB 1.1, and 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB
versions that use USB 2.0.
This seems like a no-brainer...except for the manufacturers that have a vested interest in making sure you have to pay extra for their proprietary interfaces.
As much as I hate to say it, this new format actually does make a lot of sense. If this truly goes well, I really think it could eliminate almost all of the other silly formats that are already out on the market. Unfortunately, there are way too many players in memory/flash storage market for just one company to come up with the winner.
So, this could potentially replace both flash cards and USB flash drive?
If that's the case, then this may actually be a worthwhile replacement, unlike the stupid Samsung MMCmicro.
Price competitive with CompactFlash? That would be great, because right now CF is cheaper than any of the other formats. This could be a winner.
Good Christ... does the industry really need all thie "diversity" No. :)
I was privvy to this in October. While I cannot and will not comment about future products, real or imagined, I can say that this is one of the most promising developments in storage to date.
Like all technologies we are constantly evaluating what makes sense for different customer groups. I can see many different applications.
Michael
IS this the "Fish memory" that was anounced at the begining of the year?
http://news.designtechnica.com/talkback31.html
http://www.fishmemory.org/org.php
They should have made this a couple of years ago and we might have avoided the dense jungle of crap we got now.
Somebody DID make this a couple of years ago!!!
Ever heard of the iStick???
http://www.flash-memory-store.com/pqi-usb-flash-pen-drives.html
Hopefully Lexar will make the deal sweet enough for some manufacturers to actually implement.
It's brilliant. Like post-it notes, it's one of those things that are obvious in hindsight. A home run.
As much as I hate new kinds of media card, this one actually makes sense! It combines compactness, and an interface that is one of the most widespread on the planet. This could really WORK.
Doesn't anyone get the fact that, while these cards may be slightly more useful because they are easily plugged into computers, the real reason for all these new standards is simply to get consumers to "upgrade" their memory every time they purchase a new device that uses the new "standard"?
We don't need a new format for memory so much as we need real consistency in the market place. Unfortunately the only one that is benefitted by consitency is the consumer, not the manufacturer.
I think that this has real promise, but I am going to have to see this and evaluate it first hand to see its impact. I can see how they were able to fit a fullsize usb connector into the with of two sd cards, is it a miniusb?
Yea i guess it is technically possible, if the front part of the card is just the bare usb plug, without any thicker part behind it, like most usb plugs. I can't believe someone didn't come up with this sooner. I think this has the opportunity to immediately kick the ass out of compactflash, xd, smartcard, and all the memory stick variations with its beating or equalling size and built in usb interface. I think this could be amazing.
This sounds ridiculous. What is new about this? Flash drives that are this size have been around for years (no, really!). I hope Lexar isn't planning on taking all the credit.
Memory manufactures will not go for this at all. If you think about it, their consumed memory would be cut in half because they can no longer sell both memory cards and flash drives. So I simply don't see them making this move. It's in their interest to diversify the memory portfolio in an effort to keep the product away from a comodity market. If this thing does make it, then it will lower the price of removable storage even more! A good thing for us, a bad think for them.
It sounds like a great idea...but it might just be a little too big considering all the tiny RS-XXX/T-flash/yada/yadsa cards that manufacturers seem to keep coming up with, and indeed seem to need to cram into cellphones and what not. I hope this is not the case...
Ever since I got an iStick from PQI I've thought this is a great idea (though I just read about this specific example). Go for it!
I have been working with USB in embedded systems for 4 years. I think with the appearance of such devices USB will be adopted faster in the 8/16-bit embedded world. More thin USB hosts. More work to be done. More fun for me.
Until USBIII it will be Impossible for this device to read/write as fast as a quick CF card though (which can almost reach theoretical bus speed)... not good for DSLRs in continuous frame mode , its painful enough waiting for the buffer to empty.