"For mobile phones" ?
Can these cards not be used in other devices?
SanDisk has announced a 32GB Micro SDHC Flash memory card for mobile phones. The company claims it's the highest capacity available in the format and says it's built using a 3-bit multi-layer cell flash technology based on a 32nm process. The Micro SDHC format measures 15 x 11 x 1mm, making a dud card a possible nail extension …
"But you'll struggle to find something that uses that form factor other than a phone."
No I won't, I just have to look in my pocket - oh look, a Sansa Clip+ MP3 player. Goodness knows how many other devices there might be which take a micro-SD card, but aren't currently in my pocket.
allows the 32gb microSD to fit neatly inside a hollowed-out Euro/Pound/Dollar.
the hollow pound is quite expensive at around 30 dollars from spy-coins.makersmarket.com, I guess their mailing list is now carefully watched!
Plus this is no doubt highly illegal, isn't it still treason to deface The Queen's currency??
rumour has it that one in 5 pound coins is already a dud, but is it a hollow dud???
However the UPCOMING IN 2010 ACTA free trade agreement may render stop and seize of all digital data/code/mp3/mp4 a requirement at every border crossing, though this might be my misconception.
"Oh sorry officer, I accidentally carry all my 'secret' data inside a coin - faraday cage - doesn't everyone?".
Anyway , a coin is less corrosive than the old 'microSD wrapped in clingfilm/saranwrap kept in the mouth' stunt.
('ta to SchneierBlog for the empty cash)
"The company has four-bit MLC technology, implying that it could increase the card's capacity by a third in the future. "
Adding a bit doubles the capacity. From 2^3 per cell (8 values) to 2^4 (16 values). This doesn't raise it by a third, it raises it by 100%. I am assuming that the size of a 4-bit cell is identical to a 3-bit cell. I don't know that to be factual. It may be marginally larger.
"""Adding a bit doubles the capacity. From 2^3 per cell (8 values) to 2^4 (16 values). This doesn't raise it by a third, it raises it by 100%. I am assuming that the size of a 4-bit cell is identical to a 3-bit cell. I don't know that to be factual. It may be marginally larger."""
No, adding a bit doubles the largest number that you can store. If you have a 1TB harddrive, and you add a bit, does it become a 2TB harddrive, or a very slightly larger 1TB drive?
Storage capacity is literally the number of bits that you've got, and moving from 3 to 4 bits per cell (assuming same cell density) would get you exactly 1/3 more capacity.
Me being pedantic as usual, but the maximum capacity of a SDHC card is 32GB (limited by the sd 2.0 specification, rather than the addressing). If sandisk created a new card next year with a 64GB capacity, it would be a newer specification SD 3.0 used in SDXC. The problem being that you would probably need some new hardware to support the larger capacity.
32GB MicroSDHC has been "announced" and "shipping real soon now" for a while now. A basic google search can find posts on SanDisk's own forum, whining about this being promised for the first half of 2009. So "announced" means exactly the same thing here as "up to fifty percent off," or, in other words, absolutely nothing.
This is precisely the opposite of either news or helpful, unless these things are actually shipping and available in stores literally right now.
Does no one feel even the slightest awe at what is produced these days?
Tried a rough comparison with the first data device I ever owned, an Apple HD20SC. If you could put enough of them together (which you couldn't, but this is a game) to equal this storage you'd have to have 1,639 of them, that'd make a cube just over 2 meters on a side and if running would consume 10 KW.
Try putting that in a phone. :)
Yeah, mine's the one draped over the Zimmer frame, thanks.