Brief History of Flash Memory Cards

The name "FLASH' was coined by Toshiba to indicate how fast it works. Flash memory is principally an evolved form of Electrically Alterable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EAPROM). It is a non-volatile memory that can retain information data even after power is switched off. In the beginning, flash chip was a read-only memory used in BIOS. But gradually, writable and re-writable memory chips were developed and they came to be known as flash memory cards.

Flash memory cards were meant to replace the floppy disks but today, this technology is primarily used in memory cards. A flash memory card is an electronic device that can store huge amount of data and offers high re-record ability, power-free storage. It is ubiquitous and is widely used in cell phones, digital cameras, gaming consoles, digital music players and all other consumer electronic gadgets that require data storage. Flash memory cards offer many advantages over the hard disk drives. They are very small and thin, can store unimaginable amount of data in a tiny space, provide high transfer rate, portable and convenient, silent, mechanically more secured than hard disk drives as they can withstand extreme temperature and fall. The first flash memory card was introduced in 1990 in the form of a PC card or PCMCIA. It was bigger in size than normal flash memory cards available in the market today.

Subsequently, smaller and thinner flash memory card formats like CompactFlash, Miniature Card and SmartMedia were released. More advanced formats of flash memory cards like MultiMediaCard (MMC), SecuredDigital Card (SD Card), Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card, and a number of other variants and smaller cards followed. These cards are used in various formats. While a tiny embedded memory card (SID) is used in a gaming console and mobile phone, removable or external flash memory cards are very popular with digital cameras, digital music players and PDAs. These memory cards supports host of software applications and are so very easy to use. One can easily access the data stored in a card via a card reader connected by a slot like USB. Most modern PCs have built in slots for variety of memory cards and they are interchangeable making things easier for the users.