Introduction to Memory Cards

Memory cards are used to store data in electronic devices such as cellphones, digital cameras, as well as other handheld devices. This is a non-volatile flash memory meaning even if you remove the card from your device, it won’t lose data. Also, memory cards can be reused, reformatted and data can be erased from the card. Users should choose a memory card based on their capacity, price, and compatibility. It depends on the devices whether it will support a specific type or specific size of memory card. There are different types of memory cards. Now a days cards have become smaller physically but are of larger capacity. Most common types of memory cards are Secure Digital and CompactFlash in Micro and Normal variants.

Various Types of Memory Cards

Given below are the various types :

1. CompactFlash Card

The CompactFlash is also known as CF Card is used by photographers. CF cards are much bigger in size than SD cards, and less used. They offer bigger storage as well as run time speed is higher.

There are two types of CompactFlash cards which has different capacities:

Type I Cards: 42.8mm x 36.4mm x 3.3 mm thick.
Type II Cards: 42.8mm x 36.4mm x 5.5 mm thick.

2. Secure Digital Card

The Secure Digital is the basic format of the SD card. The size of the SD card is 32 mm x 24 mm and 2.1 mm thick. The size of these SD cards is limited to 4GB. The speed of these Cards is less than other SD cards.

3. Secure Digital High Capacity

The Secure Digital High Capacity Card (SDHC) cards are designed to store high-definition photos as well as videos. Size and shape of this card is the same as standard SD card any SD card which supports 4GB memory is an SDHC card. Storage capacity of SDHC cards is up to 64 GB.

Given below is the list of classes of SDHC cards with minimum speed. Popular Course in this categoryAll in One Software Development Bundle (600+ Courses, 50+ projects)600+ Online Courses | 3000+ Hours | Verifiable Certificates | Lifetime Access
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Class 2 SDHC card supports a Minimum speed of 2 MB/s.
Class 4 SDHC card supports a Minimum speed of 4 MB/s.
Class 6 SDHC card supports a Minimum speed of 6 MB/s.
Class 8 SDHC card supports a Minimum speed of 8 MB/s.
Class 10 SDHC card supports a Minimum speed of 10 MB/s.

4. Secure Digital Extended Capacity

The Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) card is a higher version of the SDHC card. Storage Capacity of these cards 64 GB and can maximize up to 2 TB. Class 1 SDXC card supports minimum speed of 10 MB/s whereas Class 3 SDHC card supports minimum speed of 30 MB/s.

5. Micro Secure Digital High Capacity

The Micro Secure Digital High Capacity (MicroSDHC) card stores data up to 32 GB. Like SDXC, it can transfer up to 10 MB per second.
The Micro Secure Extended Capacity (MicroSDXC) card is the same as the SDXC which supports the storage over 32 GB and up to 2 TB.
It transfers data faster than the MicroSD and MicroSDHC.

6. Extreme Digital Picture Card

The Extreme Digital Picture Card is also called as xD-Picture Card is a removable flash memory which is used in digital cameras. It is developed by Fuji film and Olympus. Its size is 20 mm x 25 mm and a thickness of 1.7 mm.

7. Sony Memory Sticks

Sony Memory Sticks are compact and lightweight and used in various devices such as digital cameras, recorders, etc. It can be used with all devices which are compatible With Memory Stick PRO using of an adapter. Size of Memory Stick Micro (M2) is 15 mm x 12.5 mm x 1.2 mm Whereas the size of Memory Stick PRO is 50 mm x 21.5 mm x 2.8 mm. It is used in high megapixel digital cameras as well as digital camcorders. The size of Memory Stick PRO DUO is 31 mm x 20 mm x 1.6 mm. The Memory Stick PRO Duo provides advanced features of Memory Stick PRO media.

Conclusion

In this article, we have seen various types of memory cards and their features. You can choose any of the cards based on your requirements along with storage capacity, transfer speed, size of a card, and compatibility.

Introduction to Memory Cards