A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital

information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones,
laptop computers, MP3 players and video game consoles. They are small, re-recordable, and able to retain
data without power.

History
PC Cards (PCMCIA) were among first commercial memory card formats (type I cards) to come out in the
1990s, but are now mainly used in industrial applications and to connect I/O devices such as modems. In
1990s, a number of memory card formats smaller than PC Card arrived, including CompactFlash,
SmartMedia, and Miniature Card. The desire for smaller cards for cell-phones, PDAs, and compact digital
cameras drove a trend that left the previous generation of "compact" cards looking big. In digital cameras
SmartMedia and CompactFlash had been very successful, in 2001 SM alone captured 50% of the digital
camera market and CF had a stranglehold on professional digital cameras. By 2005 however, SD/MMC had
nearly taken over SmartMedia's spot, though not to the same level and with stiff competition coming from
Memory Stick variants, as well as CompactFlash. In industrial and embedded fields, even the venerable PC
card (PCMCIA) memory cards still manage to maintain a niche, while in mobile phones and PDAs, the
memory card market was highly fragmented until 2010 when micro-SD came to dominate new high-end
phones and tablet computers.
Since 2010, new products of Sony (previously only using Memory Stick) and Olympus (previously only
using XD-Card) are offered with an additional SD-Card slot.[1] Effectively the format war has turned in SDCard's favor.[2][3][4]

Data table of selected memory card formats

Name
PC Card
CompactFlash I
CompactFlash II
SmartMedia
Memory Stick
Memory Stick Duo
Memory Stick PRO Duo
Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo
Memory Stick Micro M2
Miniature Card
Multimedia Card
Reduced Size Multimedia Card
MMCmicro Card
P2 card
Secure Digital card
SxS
Universal Flash Storage
miniSD card
microSD card

Acronym
PCMCIA
CF-I
CF-II
SM / SMC
MS
MSD
MSPD
MSPDX
M2
MMC
RS-MMC
MMCmicro
P2
SD
SxS
UFS
miniSD
microSD

Form factor
85.6 54 3.3 mm
43 36 3.3 mm
43 36 5.5 mm
45 37 0.76 mm
50.0 21.5 2.8 mm
31.0 20.0 1.6 mm
31.0 20.0 1.6 mm
31.0 20.0 1.6 mm
15.0 12.5 1.2 mm
37 45 3.5 mm
32 24 1.5 mm
16 24 1.5 mm
12 14 1.1 mm
32 24 2.1 mm

21.5 20 1.4 mm
15 11 0.7 mm

DRM
No
No
No
No
MagicGate
MagicGate
MagicGate
MagicGate
MagicGate
No
No
No
No
No
CPRM
No
Unknown
CPRM
CPRM

xD-Picture Card
Intelligent Stick
Serial Flash Module
card
NT Card
XQD card

Secure Digital card (SD)

MiniSD Card with an SD card adapter

CompactFlash (CF-I)

Memory Stick

xD
iStick
SFM
card
NT NT+
XQD

20 25 1.7 mm
24 18 2.8 mm
45 15 mm
32 24 1 mm
44 24 2.5 mm
38.5 29.8 3.8 mm

No
No
No
Unknown
No
Unknown

MultiMediaCard (MMC)

SmartMedia

xD-Picture Card

Overview of all memory card types

Main article: Comparison of memory cards

PCMCIA ATA Type I Flash Memory Card (PC Card ATA Type I)
o PCMCIA Type II, Type III cards

CompactFlash Card (Type I), CompactFlash High-Speed

CompactFlash Type II, CF+(CF2.0), CF3.0

o Microdrive

MiniCard (Miniature Card) (max 64 MB (64 MiB))

SmartMedia Card (SSFDC) (max 128 MB) (3.3 V,5 V)

xD-Picture Card, xD-Picture Card Type M

Memory Stick, MagicGate Memory Stick (max 128 MB); Memory Stick Select, MagicGate Memory
Stick Select ("Select" means: 2x128 MB with A/B switch)

SecureMMC

Secure Digital (SD Card), Secure Digital High-Speed, Secure Digital Plus/Xtra/etc (SD with USB
connector)
o miniSD card

o microSD card (aka Transflash, T-Flash)

o SDHC
o WiFi SD Cards (SD Card With WiFi Card Built in) Powered by Device. (Eye-Fi,WiFi SD,
Flash Air)

MU-Flash (Mu-Card) (Mu-Card Alliance of OMIA)

C-Flash

SIM card (Subscriber Identity Module)

Smart card (ISO/IEC 7810, ISO/IEC 7816 card standards, etc.)

UFC (USB FlashCard) [1] (uses USB)

FISH Universal Transportable Memory Card Standard (uses USB)

Intelligent Stick (iStick, a USB-based flash memory card with MMS)

SxS (S-by-S) memory card, a new memory card specification developed by Sandisk and Sony. SxS
complies to the ExpressCard industry standard. [5]

Nexflash Winbond Serial Flash Module (SFM) cards, size range 1 mb, 2 mb and 4 mb.

Video game consoles

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citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2011)

PlayStation memory card

Video game consoles use memory cards to hold saved game data. Cartridge-based systems primarily used
battery-backed volatile RAM within each individual cartridge to hold saves for that game. The Neo Geo
AES, released in 1990 by SNK, was the first video game console able to use a memory card. AES memory
cards were also compatible with Neo-Geo MVS arcade cabinets, allowing players to migrate saves between
home and arcade systems and vice versa. Memory cards became commonplace when home consoles moved

to read-only optical discs for storing the game program, beginning with systems such as the TurboGrafx-CD
and Mega-CD.
Until the sixth generation of video game consoles, memory cards were based on proprietary formats; later
systems have used established industry hardware formats for memory cards.
Home consoles now commonly use hard disk drive storage for saved games and allow the use of generic
USB flash drives or other card formats via a memory card reader to transport game saves and other game
information, along with cloud storage saving, though most portable gaming systems still rely on custom
memory cartridges to store program data, due to their low power consumption, smaller physical size and
reduced mechanical complexity.