One of the most compact and reliable forms of data storage is solid state flash drives. Memory cards technology is a type of flash based data storage devices. The memory cards are very small in sizes that other popularly used data storage devices like hard drives. Being relatively smaller, the memory cards are used primarily in portable devices like cell phones, camcorders, digital cameras, mobile computers, etc.

The memory cards are very useful in storing all forms of multimedia data. The memory cards are very handy in extreme peripheral conditions like rough handling etc.

One of the first prototypes of memory cards include a PC card (PCMCIA) that were used commercially as type I cards. Since the launch of first commercial memory card in 1990s, there has been massive development and expansion in the memory card market. Currently used memory cards are almost 20% smaller than the PC cards. Other memory card formats include CompactFlash, SmartMedia and Miniature Cards.

Considering the wide use of memory cards, many latest computers and notebooks have built-in slots for memory cards. SD cards, CompactFlash and Memory Stick are the most popular forms of memory cards that are used today. The form factor of the memory cards vary according to their type and not capacity.

Starting from 128MB that is outdated now, there are cards up to 100GB capacity available in the market today. Most gaming consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation series and Nintendo Wii also make use of the memory cards technology as secondary storage devices.

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