SmartMedia cards - General Information

One of the newer methods of storing data are the new SmartMedia cards. They use solid state EEPROMs to hold the data so there are no moving parts. Currently they come in four different capacities, 8 MB, 32 MB, 64 MB and 128 MB. They also come with 2 different voltage settings,
5 volt and 3.3 volt.


The 3.3 volt SmartMedia cards have a clipped corner on the top right, like the picture above, while the 5 volt cards have a clipped corner on the top left.

Currently the most popular use for the SmartMedia cards is for storing photos with digital cameras. In fact, the Toshiba PDR-M70 Digital Camera uses the 3.3 volt SmartMedia cards for storing digital photos. SmartMedia are also being used with PDAs, voice recorders, game machines and MP3 players.

The SmartMedia cards are small (45mm X 37mm X .76mm), light (2g) and fairly rugged. They can also be adapted to work in both PCMCIA slots and 3.5" disk drives.

The way SmartMedia cards store their data is by using NAND-type Flash EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). The advantages of this type of technology is that it allows quick formats, writes, reads and erases. SmartMedia cards should not be inserted or removed when the device is powered on. Nor should it be removed when formatting, reading, writing or erasing. Some devices, like the Diamond Rio MP3 Player, use a different format than standard when using SmartMedia cards. This may cause the SmartMedia to be unreadable or not recognized by other devices. In this case the solution is to format the SmartMedia card prior to use.