Microdia's 3GB SD memory card

All we've got to go on is a scan of an advertisement that was in The Straits Times the other day (thanks to reader Nic Seow for the hookup on that), but a company called Microdia says they'll have a 3GB SD memory card for sale soon, as well as a 3GB MMC card, a 2GB miniSD, and a 2GB RS-MMC cards. Sooner or later these things are going to be cheap enough (2GB SD cards are expected to price out at around $250, we don't even want to think about how inexpensive these will be in a year) that you'll have to think really hard about whether you still want to carry around a separate dedicated digital audio player rather than just load up one of these high-capacity cards with MP3s and pop it into your phone (there isn't a right answer, it just comes down to what's most convenient for you). Suddenly we understand why Apple is working with Motorola...

[Suntiger @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

*drools* Forget phones, this will turn Palms into a killer device. Mp3s, giant ebooks, images... Now all they need is to merge this with a WiFi card.

[pedro @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

wait... thats no mistletoe!!!!

[binary_hero @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

Is it me, or does that SD card look a little long?

And the fact that it's just a scan from a newspaper, and we haven't heard more about it...It just seems a little fishy to me.

[binary_hero @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

Humm, their website lists up to 1.5gb SD cards, no mention of 3, let alone 2.

http://www.microdia.com/corp/jsp/splash/product_flashmemory_product01.jsp?ccode=000001100011100&pcode=28

[mike s. @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

seems weird to take an ad out in a newspaper to announce a product you don't have, doesn't it? the straits times is like the new york times of singapore, so ads can't be too cheap.

[Gary @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

Yeah I was thinking the mistletoe looked a little funky too :)

[Andy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

that thing does look elongated. what up?

[Rico @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

Those leaves remind me of Amsterdam!

[Juice @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

Trust me 3 gig SD cards are on the way anyway. DOWN WITH THE IPOD!!! ON WITH CELL PHONES THAT PLAY MP3's HAVE STEREO HEADPHONE JACKS AND SUPPORT SD.

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

I am not sure that a 3 gig card is even possible. I would like to hear otherwise if it is... Only yesterday did I speak with some engineers who are pretty well versed on the matter ABOUT 3 gig cards. Their response was that the SD technology was never designed or written to accommodate over 2 gigs. Additionally they said that no hardware will currently support over 2 gigs???

In other words, I am not sure it could exist or that anyone could use it even if it did. If you look at my web site you will see why this was of special interest to me. http://www.obsusa.com and I would love to know otherwise.

[StuBee @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

No need to "get rid your your dedicated MP3 players" if they already support SD cards. (such as the Lyra's and many others)

[JBoogie @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

According to the SD Memory Card Specifications posted at www.sdcard.org, SD was designed to support up to 32gb. Check out the road map posted at

http://www.sdcard.com/usa/TextPage.asp?Page=2

Looks like we're some years (2010? lol) away from seeing 32gb SD cards. But like others posted earlier, we will definitely see 3gb SD cards next year.

[Nic Seow @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

oh the ad was about this big launch event, so maybe they are gonna launch the new 3gb sd's there. they also had 3gb mmc's and 8gb cf's, as well as 2gb mini-sd's and 2gb rs-mcc's. crazy huh? i've never even HEARD of them till i saw the ad. as well as some ipod-ripoff mp3 players.

[Korey Klier @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

keep on looking looking buckwheat!
here are 2gb cards
http://www.microdia.com/corp/jsp/splash/product_flashmemory_product01.jsp?ccode=000001100011100&pcode=116

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

Here is the response I received from the people I have with more knowledge than myself:

"You're placing way to much faith in marketing materials...

Right now the address for the SD Card commands are simply not wide enough to support that size. If they change the width, existing devices will not be able to talk to new cards. So they'll probably add new commands (with wider addresses), or logically partition the card into 2GB segments and add a command to switch between them."

I still look forward to seeing them work.

Cheers

[we are borg @ Dec 19th 2005 12:08AM]

It is my understanding that the current design of the SD card supports a theoretical max cap of 4GB (and they are on the way.) http://brighthand.com/article/ATP_Announces_4GB_SD_Card

I'm waiting for IBMs millipede concept data storage technology to appear :-)
http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/01/article2/article2.html

.. until then I'll be on the lookout for cheeep 2GB sd cards!