SmartMedia Cards

SmartMedia is a flash memory card standard with capacities ranging between 2 MB and 128 MB. SmartMedia was considered to be a successor to the floppy disk and was originally referred to as an SSFDC (Solid-State Floppy Disk Card).

The cards themselves contain a single NAND flash chip which was embedded into the card, with some higher capacity cards containing several chips. The card is small, thin and produced at a relatively low cost compared to other memory cards due to it not containing a built-in controller.

Specifications

• Uses 16 Mbit, 32 Mbit and 64-Mbit Toshiba TC58 compatible NAND type flash memory chips

• 8-bit I/O interface

• Ten-year storage time without power

• Compatible with 3.5" floppy drives using FlashPath adapter

• Metallic write-protect sticker

• 1000000 write cycles

• Data transfer rate: 2 MB/s

Applications

SmartMedia cards can be used in a standard 3.5" floppy drive by using a FlashPath adapter, and enable flash memory functionality in old hardware.

SmartMedia cards were popular in digital cameras and other portable devices and backed by Fujifilm and Olympus until digital cameras required more memory than the 128 MB on offer and switched to xD.

Typically, SmartMedia cards can hold pictures taken using a digital camera and then loaded onto a PC.