Toshiba Expands SD Card Family With Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Memory Cards

Toshiba Expands SD Card Family With Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) Memory Cards

SDHC Cards to be Marketed Worldwide to Meet Growing Demand for Higher Capacity Storage

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., (TAEC)* and its parent, Toshiba Corporation, today announced the company’s first Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory card. The new 4-gigabyte (GB)(1) SDHC memory card is scheduled for availability in September.

The new memory card conforms to the SD memory card ver. 2.00 standard introduced by the SD Card Association (SDA) which enables capacities greater than 2-gigabytes to be achieved and features minimum SD Speed Class Ratings to achieve optimal performance for FAT32-enabled hosts. The SD Speed Class Ratings specify a minimum sustained write speed for SDHC cards (Class 2: 2 MB/s(2); Class 4: 4 MB/s; Class 6: 6 MB/s).

Toshiba is initially announcing a 4GB SDHC card that exceeds the Class 4 minimum write speed of 4MB/s. In the future, cards up to 32-gigabytes can be developed that conform to this standard. These higher capacity memory cards are intended for use in applications such as digital video cameras and digital cameras capable of recording video segments and high-resolution pictures, or to provide storage for a larger number of digital photos.

“Our new SDHC cards are an important development in the SD card family to provide higher capacity storage to support video storage applications in camcorders and digital cameras,” said Brian Kumagai, business development manager, NAND Flash, for TAEC.

The Toshiba 4GB SDHC memory card (SD-M04G) is scheduled for availability in September 2006.

SD Memory Card

The SD memory card was jointly developed in 1999 by Toshiba Corporation, SanDisk Corporation and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (best known for its Panasonic brand name products). SD memory cards have been widely adopted worldwide. Toshiba has shipped more than 200 million memory cards(6) and is currently the world’s second largest supplier of NAND Flash memory(7). The addition of the SDHC card to the Toshiba SD Card family addresses the growing demand for high capacity storage.

The Toshiba SD Memory Card family now includes standard SD memory cards, as well as miniSD, microSD and SDHC cards. The entire SD card line features cryptographic security, protection of copyrighted data, high-data transfer rate for fast copy/download and high storage capacity. TAEC currently offers a wide selection of SD Memory Cards with storage capacities of 512MB, 1GB and 2GB in the standard (blue) product family, and a higher performance (white) family of cards in 512MB and 1GB capacities. The Toshiba SD Memory card line-up now includes miniSD in capacities ranging from 512MB to 2GB card, microSD cards in 256MB, 512MB and 1GB capacities, and a 4GB SDHC card. As the world of SD expands, SD Memory remains the global standard for compact, portable memory.

NAND Flash Background

As a recognized pioneer in flash technology, Toshiba was a principal innovator of NAND- and NOR-type Flash technology in the 1980’s. Toshiba maintains leadership in Flash technology today, with a complete line of NAND memory in densities from 512 megabit(8) (Mb) to 16Gb(9) to meet various application requirements. NAND Flash has become one of the leading technologies for solid-state storage applications because of its high-speed programming capability, high-speed erasing, and low cost. The sequential nature (serial access) of NAND-based Flash memory provides notable advantages for these block-oriented data storage applications. Toshiba’s NAND Flash memory products are optimized for general solid-state storage, image file storage and audio for applications such as solid-state disk drives, digital cameras, audio appliances, set-top boxes and industrial storage.

*About TAEC

Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes memory and flash memory-based storage solutions, a broad range of discrete devices, displays, medical tubes, ASICs, custom SOCs, microprocessors, microcontrollers and wireless components for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets.

TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba), Japan’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and the world’s fourth largest semiconductor manufacturer. In more than 130 years of operation, Toshiba has recorded numerous firsts and made many valuable contributions to technology and society. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC’s website at chips.toshiba.com. For technical inquiries, please e-mail Tech.Questions {at} taec.toshiba(.)com.

Information in this press release, including product pricing and specifications, content of services and contact information, is current and believed to be accurate on the date of the announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice. Technical and application information contained here is subject to the most recent applicable Toshiba product specifications. In developing designs, please ensure that Toshiba products are used within specified operating ranges as set forth in the most recent Toshiba product specifications and the information set forth in Toshiba’s “Handling Guide for Semiconductor Devices,” or “Toshiba Semiconductor Reliability Handbook.” This information is available at www.chips.toshiba.com, or from your TAEC representative.