Portable media have moved images, videos, movies, and other files into the 21st century. After the SD card was released, one fact became clear: although it was a wonderful advent, it was still too big for portable electronic devices. And so the miniSD format became suitable to complement the built-in memory of various devices. For example, some MP3 players may come with an expandable memory slot, upgrading from 512MB to 2GB. In terms of its size, a miniSD memory card has a clear advantage, since it is almost half the size of SD cards. Measuring just 20 x 21.5 x 1.4mm, it is elegantly designed for use in mid-sized portable devices such as voice recorders, cameras and video recorders.
When the SD Association established the miniSD brand in 2003, little could be predicted about its success. There was demand for smaller memory chips, but would miniSD win? Since the SD Association had prior experience with these types of non-volatile flash media formats, releasing it was not a problem; the Association already had connections with large companies that made various SD-compatible electronic devices, which quickly adapted to miniSD memory cards. miniSD’s main advantage over SD was its size, and it even lacked a write-protect switch, but technologically they were almost identical; fears of redundancy gave rise to doubts about its success. The result? Today, a small 32 GB miniSD memory card can hold more than 545 hours of music at 128 Kbps.
The SD card socket is an electromechanical adapter with 11 pins and a narrow, short and thin shape. All cards support 1-bit mode and some support 4-bit mode; 8-bit mode is not available with miniSD cards. Data transfer takes place at 100 Mbit/sec and 25 Mbit/sec on the SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) bus. Access control can be managed through DRM, however functionality for user encryption has not been implemented. MiniSD is open source compatible. A miniSD card works with 2.7-3.6 V of electricity; regular ones come in various capacities not exceeding 2 GB, and high-capacity miniSD memory cards are available between 4 and 32 GB. You can put two full-featured HD movies on a 32GB miniSD card. Even a 2 GB card can hold over 700 high-quality 10 MP photos! In addition to expanding your memory capabilities, a miniSD-compatible device gives you faster speeds and higher data transfer rates than typical built-in flash drives.
The format is already 10 years old; At CES 2010, SD celebrated its anniversary and issued the following statement outlining its plans for the future:
“With an estimated 2.5 billion SD memory cards shipped, SD is now the world’s leading removable media interface. For the past 10 years, the SD Association has guided SD technology from an upstart in the then highly fragmented media market. removable media to become a leader with nearly 80 percent market share today.The first SD memory cards offered a staggering 8 megabytes of storage capacity in the size of a postage stamp, while the latest specification, SDXC, will enter the market with 64 GB, an 8,000 times greater capacity, increase over the first SD memory cards and scale up to 2 terabytes of storage capacity.”
The use of miniSD quickly spread to devices such as GPS navigators, printers, eBook readers, DVRs, and even video game systems. Because it was essentially the same as SD, a simple adapter turns any miniSD into a regular SD card. Before buying an electronic device that allows you to expand memory with a memory card, make sure it is an SD, miniSD or microSD card; other formats include CompactFlash and Memory Stick, but those cards are bulkier in size. If you already have a camera, camcorder, digital voice recorder, or other device with a memory card, and you’re not sure what format it is, check with its manual or look it up online.