As digital devices spread, more and more. consumers are becoming familiar with flash media. Flash medias have many advantages over other digital medias, mostly optical medias. They don't have moving parts, therefore they consume less energy. They are highly resistant to heat, scratches and dust. However, their biggest problem is their limited capacity and very high price/MB ratio. Technology companies are working to improve these and have achieved a lot in this area. As everywhere in the digital domain, there are many formats in the flash media. Let us examine them:
CompactFlash: These are mostly used in prosumer and professional applications. They are the biggest in size and in capacity. Their highest capacity is 8GB.
Secure Digital: This is the most widely used flash media in consumer applications. Many digital cameras and PDAs use this format. The highest capacity for this format is 1GB. They also include a digital copy protection system that prevents digitally protected data from being copied onto other devices.
Memory Stick: This is the second most widely used flash media format. This format uses various types of media for different applications. The Magicgate type is used in audio players and has digital copy protection. The Duo type Memory Stick is often used in small devices like PDAs or mobile phones. The Memory Stick Pro, which has been recently released, has more capacity. The highest capacity Memory Stick is 2GB XD Picture Card: This flash media was developed only for digital cameras. This format is often seen as the continuation of the Smartmedia card. Maximum capacity is 512MB.
Smartmedia: This flash media format has been abandoned as it could not meet the capacity requirements of the developing technology. Highest capacity achieved was 128MB
MMC: Stands for Multimedia Card. Most devices that work with Secure Digital work with MMC as well. Many analysts predict that SD will completely replace MMC in the not too distant future. The maximum capacity for MMC is 1GB.

Eren Tezmen (MAN/III)