kingston.com/flash Flash Memory Guide Portable Flash memory for computers, digital cameras, cell phones and other devices Kingston®, the world’s leading independent manufacturer of memory products, offers a broad range of Flash cards and USB Flash drives (collectively called Flash storage devices) that employ Flash memory chips for storage. The purpose of this guide is to explain the various technologies and Flash memory 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 1.0 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 1.0 bit errors. For example, Kingston’s CompactFlash® cards have a rated error specification of less than one (1) bit in 1,000,000,000,000,000 bits read (1 bit per 1015 bits read). • Kingston Flash Data Retention: Kingston Flash storage devices are rated for up to 10 years under normal use. Important information should also be backed up on other media for long-term safekeeping.
kingston.com/flash 1.0 • High-Capacity: Flash storage devices can provide large storage capacities in a very small form factor. This flexibility makes them ideal for consumer uses, such as digital film or storage for MP3 music, where portability and convenience are important. Please note: Some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and thus is not available for data storage. Please see Section 2 for details.
kingston.com/flash 1.0 There are two major technologies of Flash memory: NOR and NAND.
kingston.com/flash 5.0 Die-Stacking and Multi-Level Cell/Multi-Bit Cell Flash technologies In order to economically increase the amount of bit-storage that a Flash memory chip can accommodate, manufacturers often utilize die-stacking and multi-level cell or multi-bit cell technologies. These technologies result in a Flash memory chip having the capability to store more data in a single chip. CompactFlash cards 5.1 DIE-STACKING were the first small form factor Flash memory cards.
kingston.com/flash 6.0 Flash Storage Device Performance Flash card storage device performance depends on the following three factors: USB Flash drives offers an easy way to transfer files from a digital device to a computer. • The specific Flash memory chips used: Generally, there is a tradeoff between the high-speed and more expensive Single-Level Cell (SLC) Flash chips, and the standard speed and more affordable Multi-Level Cell (MLC) or Multi-Bit Cell (MBC) Flash chips.
kingston.com/flash 7.0 Kingston’s Flash Card Product Lines There are several types of Flash storage devices that are available from Kingston: - USB Flash Drives (DataTravelers) - Secure Digital Cards (SD, miniSD, microSD) - CompactFlash® Cards - MultiMediaCards (MMC, MMCplus, MMCmobile) 7.1 USB FLASH DRIVES Kingston’s DataTraveler Elite offers industryleading security in a convenient and ultra-fast USB Flash drive.
kingston.com/flash 1.0 7.3 SECURE DIGITAL CARDS (SD, miniSD, microSD) Secure Digital, introduced in late 2001, is a second-generation derivative of the MultiMediaCard (MMC) standard (see section 7.4). Kingston’s MMCplus is based on the latest The Secure Digital format includes several important technological advancements over MMC. These include the addition of cryptographic security protection for copyrighted data/music.
kingston.com/flash 1.0 original MMC specification was recently updated from 3.x to 4.x. The new 4.x MMC cards are called MMCplus (replaces older MMC) and MMCmobile (replaces older RSMMC DV). The newer version of MMC cards launched in 2005 by the MultiMedia Card Association supports revision 4.x of the specification and is backward-compatible with the older MMC 3.x and RS-MMC 3.x cards (now discontinued).
kingston.com/flash 1.0 For Flash media, Kingston recommends the flexible and convenient 15-in-1 (fifteen form factors supported by a single reader) units that can accommodate most of the Flash card form factors available today and can be connected to any notebook with a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port. Kingston also offer a convenient, portable, reader, TravelLite SD/MMC Reader for high-performance data transfers to systems supporting Hi-Speed USB 2.0. 9.
kingston.com/flash 1.0 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/Ultimate Flash cards or the DataTraveler II, II Plus – Migo Edition or Elite Hi-Speed USB Flash drives, will deliver higher performance than the standard Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash or Multi-Bit Cell (MBC) NAND Flash based cards or DataTraveler.
