kingston.com/flash Digital Media Guide Portable digital media for computers, digital cameras, and other devices Kingston®, the world’s leading independent manufacturer of memory products, sells a broad range of flash cards and USB flash drives (collectively called flash storage devices) that employ flash memory chips for storage as well as ultra-portable PC Card hard drives. This Digital Media Technical Guide’s purpose is to explain the various technologies and digital media offerings that are available.
kingston.com/flash 1.0 Flash Memory: Empowering A New Generation of Flash Storage Devices Toshiba invented flash memory in the 1980s as a new memory technology that allowed stored data to be saved even when the memory device was disconnected from its power source. Since then, flash memory technology has evolved into the preferred storage media for a variety of consumer and industrial devices.
kingston.com/flash 3.Reserving some cells to serve as “spares.” Flash memory cells have a long but finite lifetime. Therefore, some cells are held in reserve to replace any memory cells that may fail over time. 4. Creating a File Allocation Table (FAT) or other directory. To enable flash storage devices to conveniently store and access customer files, a file management system must be created to allow any device or computer to identify the files stored in the flash storage device.
kingston.com/flash • Small Physical Size (or Form Factor): Flash storage devices are designed to be easily transported. Convenience is an important criterion, especially for consumer and corporate applications. Kingston’s engineers test and select highperformance controllers to ensure that Kingston’s flash cards are among the performance leaders in the industry.
kingston.com/flash • High-Quality Connectors: Kingston’s flash storage devices have connectors rated for more than 10,000 insertions. • Operating Temperature and Humidity: 0° C ~ 60° C, 5% ~ 95% humidity The DataPak™ is the perfect solution for notebooks, handhelds, digital cameras or any other digital device with a Type II PC Card slot. • High-Capacity: Flash storage devices can provide large storage capacities in a very small form factor.
kingston.com/flash (and pictures) remains saved on the flash storage device. The ability to retain data is key for flash memory applications such as digital film for digital cameras, cell phones, PDAs and other transportable devices. Kingston Flash cards were rated the best There are two major technologies of flash memory: NOR and NAND. Each technology has its strengths that make it ideal for different kinds of applications, as summarized in the table below: in read and write performance by dpreview.
kingston.com/flash For example, most digital cameras use NAND-Flash based digital film, as pictures are usually taken and stored sequentially. NAND-Flash is also more efficient when pictures are read back, as it transfers whole pages of data very quickly. As a sequential storage medium, NAND Flash is ideal for data storage. CompactFlash cards were the first small form factor flash memory cards.
kingston.com/flash Intel Corporation has introduced NOR StrataFlash™; AMD has introduced NOR MirrorBit™ Flash. Other semiconductor manufacturers also manufacture their own multi-level cell technologies. NAND MLC Flash technologies were introduced in late 2002, and Kingston has incorporated MLC Flash memory into its line of standard Flash cards. USB flash memory offers an easy way to transfer files from a digital device to a computer. 5.
kingston.com/flash For details on USB Performance, refer to Appendix A. Some flash memory product manufacturers provide “speed” ratings. However, due to a lack of industry standards, comparing different flash products may prove difficult for consumers. Kingston’s DataTraveler offers quick and easy Kingston continuously works closely with global semiconductor and controller manufacturers to ensure that Kingston flash cards deliver superior price/performance to its customers.
kingston.com/flash DATATRAVELER 2.0: INTERFACE FLASH TYPE VOLTAGE PIN COUNT SIZE IN MM Hi-Speed USB 2.0 NAND 5 Volts 4 25.42 x 98.17 x 15.40 7.2 COMPACTFLASH (CF) CARDS Secure Digital cards feature cryptographic security protection and a 4x increase in data transfer rates over MMC. CompactFlash, or CF cards, were the first small form factor flash cards introduced in 1994. CF cards incorporate a controller and are about the size of a matchbook.
kingston.com/flash Kingston offers standard SD cards as well as high-performance Elite Pro SD cards. INTERFACE FLASH TYPE VOLTAGE PIN COUNT SIZE IN MM Secure Digital NAND 2.7–3.3 Volts 9 32 x 24 x 2.1 (Built-in controller) MultiMediaCards are commonly used in MP3 players and other devices that require a small form factor. 7.4 MULTIMEDIACARD (MMC) MultiMediaCards are one of the smallest flash cards available, about the size of a postage stamp.
kingston.com/flash Specifically designed for high-speed image transfer, Kingston Flash Digital media reader-writers can enable the uploading and downloading of data at higher speeds than a host device is capable of supporting; for example, a USB readerwriter will be much faster than a host device (such as a digital camera) using a serial interface. If a host device does not support high-speed transfers, the faster readerwriters will significantly reduce the data transfer times.
kingston.com/flash • High Capacity: Up to 5 GB (5,000,000,000 bytes) of uncompressed storage capacity in a compact form-factor. Note that some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and thus is not available for data storage. • Operating Systems Compatibility: Compatible with PC and Macintosh operating systems. The DataPak also supports disk compression. • Plug and Play Support: Kingston’s DataPak supports plug and play.
kingston.com/flash Flash Memory Chip Technology Single-Level Cell (SLC) vs. MultiLevel Cell (MLC) and Multi-Bit Cell (MBC) In general, flash storage devices built with Single-Level Cell (SLC) NAND Flash, such as Kingston’s Elite Pro Flash cards or the Hi-Speed USB DataTraveler 2.0, will deliver higher performance than the standard Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash or Multi-Bit Cell (MBC) NAND Flash based cards or DataTraveler.
