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Removable memory transformed the world of mobile electronics, and handheld computing in particular. You were no longer limited to the few megabytes of RAM bundled with most PDAs or smartphones. Now you could carry a huge amount of data—in the form of maps, documents, games, books, music and other forms of content—to enhance your mobile experience.

Handhelds mostly use the following types of memory cards: Secure Digital, CompactFlash (flash and microdrive), Memory Stick. All three formats took giant steps forward recently through significant developments by SanDisk, Toshiba and Panasonic.

SandDisk
The largest seller of flash memory cards plans release the highest-capacity Secure Digital (SD) card yet by the end of the year. This new card will fill 2GB of storage in the postage-stamp-sized format.

SanDisk will also up the capacity of its CompactFlash Type I line to 8 GB and its Memory Stick PRO cards to 4GB. All these new cards (see top image) are part of SanDisk's Ultra II family of flash memory cards, delivering a minimum read speed of 10 MB/sec.

The $240 2GB SD card should sell for $240, down from the $500 SanDisk sold its first 1 GB SD card for during the first half of the year. That card now sells for about $120. SanDisk's 8GB CompactFlash card and 4GB Memory Stick Pro card will go for $960 each.

Toshiba
Back in January 2004, Toshiba's Storage Device Division introduced the worlds smallest hard disk drive. There are now reports that this device will go into volume production later this year. The 3,600 rpm drive is about the same size as an SD card. By comparison, IBM's and Hitachi's microdrives use the much larger CompactFlash format.

Toshiba's 0.85-inch hard disk drive will be the first of its type to deliver multi-gigabyte data storage (probably 2GB to 4GB) in a sub-one-inch form factor. It is only a quarter the size of the 1.8-inch drives used in many gadgets, such as Apple's famous iPOD music players. And it requires 50 percent less power and is sturdier too.

The new hard disk drive is aimed at delivering enhanced data storage to products that include mobile phones, digital camcorders, digital cameras, PDAs and more. Toshiba said it anticipates achieving higher densities in the near future for even larger storage capacities.

Although the 0.85-inch hard disk is small enough to fit in a memory card, Toshiba will most likely offer it as an embedded solution, at least initially.

In related news, Samsung is also developing a hard drive of this size.

Panasonic
Matsushita and its Panasonic subsidiary plan to release fast 20MBps SD cards later this month in Japan—with worldwide rollout to follow later. Although the new high-speed cards require updated readers to work at that speed, they do drop to 10MBps to function on current handhelds and desktops. The first 20MBps cards will arrive at 512MB ($117) and 1GB ($243) sizes with 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB editions to follow, one a year, until 2008.