SanDisk and Sony to expand Memory Stick PRO / Micro to 2TB

Monkey see, monkey do, eh? No sooner do we learn that SDHC will eventually morph into SDXC with a capacity limit of 2TB than Sony and SanDisk announce that the Memory Stick PRO / Memory Stick Micro will soon reach that same ceiling. In fact, the announcement is so new that the format doesn't even have a name (something along the lines of Extended High Capacity, probably), giving both of the formats the ability to reach 2TB on a single card. If all goes to plan, production should get going on the new formats sometime this year, so it's safe to say the race to a new top is officially on.

[GreezyG @ Jan 8th 2009 7:34PM]

Nobody will ever need more than 640K of RAM!!!!

[Noah @ Jan 8th 2009 7:49PM]

It's a joke, can you sense the sarcasm? It's a Bill Gates quote. And the joke remains funny when applied to anything using solid-state memory... because it's so damn ridiculous that he said that to begin with. LOL

[steve @ Jan 9th 2009 12:07AM]

Bill Gates never said that quote which is attributed to him.

[AVG @ Jan 8th 2009 10:07PM]

@Noah

Yeah, steve is right. He never actually said it. It was misquoted and then spread all over.

[more bad asser @ Jan 8th 2009 7:34PM]

no mention of Pro Duo must mean that it's not physically big enough. (my assumption) maybe we (PSP owners) will get 1TB or at least 500gb sticks? hope they can firmware update the PSP's to be capable of accessing that much space. i got my PS3 Video 9 ready to shovel a ton of video onto it. :)

[Patriks7 @ Jan 8th 2009 7:38PM]

Are you kidding? The requirements for that will be a PSP-6000 or so. But thats after you sold half your organs and half your family to even afford the stick..

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Jan 8th 2009 7:46PM]

or all the organs of all your family when you sell them.HOMEBREW galore! Now I'll actually be able to store every single bit of homebrew on ONE stick. I have 740 gigs of the stuff.

[inside the machine @ Jan 8th 2009 7:55PM]

@ more bad asser:

your assumption would be incorrect given the clear mention of M2 cards reaching the same capacity... form factor isn't an issue

[Lu_Max @ Jan 8th 2009 7:36PM]

Holy crap! Does this mean I can (may?) finally have a portable media player that can hold ALL of my data? Hmmmmmmm, a 2TB SWEET!

[ibeatyu @ Jan 9th 2009 7:30AM]

You mean p()rn?!?

[Cash @ Jan 8th 2009 7:36PM]

They going to lower the prices too so they're on par with SD, finally?

[Sonic @ Jan 8th 2009 9:49PM]

Its Sony, so no.

[breaklaw @ Jan 9th 2009 7:25AM]

The only reason memory stick EXISTS is to charge more than SD for basically the same thing.

[martin @ Jan 8th 2009 7:37PM]

Why oh why cant we have ONE memory card format?! When there suckers started comeing out wasnt there supposed to be winner?

arghh

[Ellianth @ Jan 8th 2009 7:44PM]

We can, just refuse to buy any device that uses something other than SD. Like say... Sony products.

[Thats What He Said @ Jan 8th 2009 8:12PM]

CompactFlash/MultiMedia Stick FTW!

[Sora @ Jan 8th 2009 7:37PM]

Will this be compatible with my PSP? If so, the possibilities are endless...O_O

[Lu_Max @ Jan 8th 2009 7:38PM]

Um, that was supposed to say: "a 2TB (insert you favorite model of digital media player here) SWEET!

[Sora @ Jan 8th 2009 8:28PM]

But my iPod doesn't accept Memory Stick Pro! And neither does the Zune, or damn near any non-Sony device...

[GenoMalice @ Jan 8th 2009 9:15PM]

They can't accept SD cards either buddy. Your such Sony hater! :-P

[ElCap @ Jan 9th 2009 8:26PM]

Sora, you're kidding right?

[Nicko @ Jan 8th 2009 7:39PM]

#@$$@

Holy freaking !!!!!!! This is just utterly absurd. This jump in storage capacity is completely mind blowing!!

ALL STORAGE ISSUES ARE OFFICIALLY OVER!!!!!

[KAIKAI @ Jan 8th 2009 7:59PM]

there is not storage issue
there is how ever a money issue.....:P

[Verythrax @ Jan 8th 2009 7:39PM]

No Duo love? My PSP cries like a child abandoned by his parents.

They are really hard on the Custom Firmware users, huh?

[Information Central @ Jan 8th 2009 7:41PM]

GIVE IT UP, Sony.

Nobody wants a proprietary, horseshit flash card.

With the dire situation that company finds itself in, you'd think they'd give up on failed products like this.

[tekdroid @ Jan 9th 2009 5:24AM]

Sure, it's not the cheapest (in fact, it's blatant ripoffski), but to call it failed is a bit of a stretch, IMO. Millions of devices are sold every year supporting one of these formats, from phones (M2) to PSP to cameras to camcorders to pro audio recorders.

They are milking the market quite well, so why should they give this healthy revenue stream up, from a business perspective?

That said, 9 times out of 10 I will chase up an equivalent or near-equivalent product that uses SD from another manufacturer. If there is no equivalent (for example, PSP), I pay the Memory Stick tax.

[birthday is 1990 @ Jan 8th 2009 7:41PM]

Goodbye hard drive?
Does anyone else think that hard drives will most likely become obsolete very soon if they don't have an extremely large upgrade storage and speed wise? The gap between hard drives and flash memory is exponentially decreases every year or so.

[Thats What He Said @ Jan 8th 2009 8:10PM]

since when does flash memory increase by 30% every year?

[justin @ Jan 8th 2009 10:26PM]

wtf do u mean? flash has grown a lot since it first became mainstream, which wasn't that long ago. Hard drive disks have hit a limit in there ability to match their enormous sizes with enormous speed. RPM isn't gonna cut it for much longer. The only serious improvements on hard drives have been the price drops, which indicate it's move towards obsolescence.

[decapitor @ Jan 8th 2009 7:41PM]

I would have bought a PSP a long time ago if not for overpriced propriety sony stuff. If they had downloadable games to nice n cheap SDHC cards then I'd be all over that.

[jupiterthunder @ Jan 8th 2009 8:35PM]

Lexar Media! What do the kids say? FTW!

[bk7 @ Jan 8th 2009 7:56PM]

All the anti-sony proprietary format haters, meet the next article posted. =)

[Thats What He Said @ Jan 8th 2009 8:07PM]

i dont get why people hate on proprietary formats, i mean, if you have to buy expensive products to use a fancy display output to a fancy input on a fancy LED backlit glass screen, then so be it, right?

[vikingblade @ Jan 8th 2009 7:57PM]

2TB is the limit of the file system they are using. 2TB is not what they are capable of physically producing any time soon.

[chrisk1590 @ Jan 8th 2009 10:50PM]

"SDXC utilises Microsoft's new exFAT file system — AKA 'FAT 64' — which first appeared in Windows Vista SP1, and has a theoretical file size limit of 16 exbibytes." From Slashdot. I think the physical capacity is 2TB, but the filesystem can handle way more. Not that it should matter any time soon...

[BigD145 @ Jan 8th 2009 7:58PM]

SD and Memory Stick are essentially the same. There isn't that much difference other than the form factor.

[archie4oz @ Jan 8th 2009 9:30PM]

Indeed, both are pretty much the same. Form factor is a bit different. Memory stick is a bit older as a format and has a bit better compatibility w/older devices. (e.g. there are still a ton of non-SDHC devices that can't use any SDHC or newer devices, whereas any MS Pro slot will work w/all the newer devices (they just run slower due to lower clock and/or pins)).

[Thats What He Said @ Jan 8th 2009 8:04PM]

Memory Stick Pro Duo Quad Extreme i7

[pr_master @ Jan 8th 2009 8:07PM]

A brand new car or a 2TB "Memory Stick Pro Quad format for Extended High Capacity".

You decide...

[Thats What He Said @ Jan 8th 2009 8:14PM]

nerds dont need cars, they get everywhere they need to go with a jacked Beetle with solar panels in the back

so i guess i would have to say the memory card
and i think you stole Quad from me...

[444turbodiesel @ Jan 8th 2009 8:19PM]

Yea, like this will happen soon...NOT

They will have to cash in on 64, 128, 256, 512GB & 1T cards first.

[TouchPodium.com @ Jan 8th 2009 10:02PM]

True, but even 128 and 256GB's would be simply incredible!

[EdgeOne @ Jan 8th 2009 9:00PM]

SCREW
MEMORY
STICK (ANYTHING)

[fastm3driver @ Jan 8th 2009 9:27PM]

When will the "Memory Stick" shit go away?

[simon @ Jan 8th 2009 11:14PM]

For all the memorystick haters here saying that proprietary formats should go away, 2 things:
1. Do you think that SD is open format?
2. I sure hope you're not typing from a Mac becasue the hypocrisy would just be too much

[giuliop @ Jan 9th 2009 6:41AM]

1. Well, if by open you mean used by 99% of the other hardware manufacturers, and so ridiculously easy to exchange among machines, not to mention always cheaper for exactly that reason, then yes.
2. I am not, and even if I was, that would be a ludicrously weak point.

[AJ in the East Bay @ Jan 9th 2009 1:05AM]

JUST FREAKIN" DIE, MEMORY STICK!!

[Dave @ Jan 9th 2009 4:05AM]

Just STFU looser

[JBDragon @ Jan 9th 2009 3:51AM]

Why does Sony want to keep holding onto Memory Stick??? I won't buy any device that only uses Memory Stick. In fact I prefer to stick with SD. I have SD cards all over the place. They work in my PocketPC, GPS, Camera's, HDTV, etc. I won't buy a Sony device if I have to use Memory Stick. Forget about it. Only SONY uses it. I'm not going to lock myself into SONY Products in the same way I won't buy Music from ITUNES and be locked into IPODS. I like when for example, Netflix Streaming, Works on your PC, Xbox 360, Blu-Ray Players, Built into TV's, Stand alone Boxes. You have a Choice on what you want to use. That's how I look at these Memory chips. Standard format that works with most things. Sure there's Compact Flash, in MiniSD cards, But they work in more then 1 brand. SD seems to be the most popular.

[Yea g @ Jan 12th 2009 4:08AM]

Actually, I don't own a single sd card, but I own about 15 memory sticks. :P