SD Memory Card Ups Downloading Capabilities

19 November 2000

Smart, Secure, Small And Speedy SD Memory Card Ups Downloading Capabilities

James Bond would have been happy with one of these- a clever piece of futuristic technology that’s about the size of a postage stamp but which has about as much storage memory as the average desk-bound computer or laptop.

It downloads files faster, more securely and – well, just plain ‘more’ – than ever before. It can fit in your wallet or shirt pocket for transportation and tell your microwave how to cook a seven course meal direct from the Internet while downloading digital movies or music distributed via internet.

According to Panasonic, who are revealing the SD Memory Card technology for the first time in New Zealand, at the Big Boys Toys show in Auckland this weekend, the SD Memory Card’s media bridging abilities will catapult downloading, storage and transmitting into the next technology level – a sort of digital Dr Doolittle with all your electronic appliances and products talking the same language

How does it work? The Panasonic R&D team in Matsushita Electric’s Japanese labs have taken basic six year old digital memory technology and shot it into the 21st century. When the first of the Flash Memory Cards came onto the scene, they weighed in at 11.4g and with minimal capacity. Later generations added copyright and write protection and expanded capacity, but the ultimate in size and weight (now half that of anything on the market – at 2gm) plus all the extras, is the 2000 technology embedded in the SD Memory Card.

Chris Key, Panasonic marketing manager, says this technology is indicative of the advances coming out of Panasonic through the Matsushita R&D team. “It has a capability not before available in NZ and we believe it will add a new dimension to the way people work and play in the digital networked world.”

It’s a media sharing device, meaning it works across a range of applications from audio/video to personal computing, mobile and communication data and eventually microwave ovens, health care, fitness devices, in-car navigation and in-store content servers. It’s already got a strong pedigree of relations, from Compaq to EMI, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, TDK, Toyota.

So for the James Bonds of this networked world, the SD Memory Card allows super secure and ultra high speed downloading of any digital files onto a tiny piece of postage-stamp sized card, easily transported or transmitted. For more conventional businesspeople, it could mean being able to film details of a particular location onto a digital movie camera, download via PC onto the SD Memory Card and transmit via wideband global roaming cellphone to a remote office site - demonstrating construction, environmental or business activities. Picture quality is broadcast standard, bringing in new dimensions for television and film crews.

But if, like most of us, you’re still locked in a love-hate battle with your computer, you can always forget your worries with some downloaded digital music from your favourite artist, snap the SD Memory Card into your audio player wristwatch and go for a good long walk.

-ends- For more information: Chris Key, Panasonic, 09 272 0125, 025 841 770 www.panasonicnz.co.nz

-- Carrara Communications Ltd Public Relations / Communications P O Box 128-183 Remuera, Auckland, NZ Tel: 64 9 579 7270. Fax 64 9 579 7807 mobile: 021 80 4749

..."Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"... Arthur C Clarke

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