Flash memory technology certainly has changed the way we live. It is the basis for digital cameras, digital camcorders, cell phones, MP3 players and of course thumb drives. The ability to store large amounts of information in a small space has changed how we work and play. It also has killed one industry (picture film) while creating many new ones (mentioned above).
Flash memory cards, used in digital cameras, have certainly changed since being introduced. The original flash memory card was the CompactFlash Drive made by SanDisk in 1994. This square drive (1.69 inches x 1.42 inches) had female pin connectors and was very large when compared to today's cards. Nikon used this format for almost 10 years before switching to the now standard SD media card.
The first thin and quite small card was the Smart media card introduced in 1995. This card is the grandfather of SD (Secure Digital) media card that is used by most digital cameras today. It had a gold plated connector that easily inserted into the appropriate device.
Sony and Olympus are still using their proprietary formats Memory Stick and xD respectively. There are some advantages to these formats (Memory sticks are pretty rugged and xD is pretty small), however the majority of new products have moved to SD technology. Most new laptops and netbooks have just an SD card slot in them.
SD has advanced to the new SDHD (High Density) cards that can be as large as 64GB. Unfortunately SDHD cards can NOT be used in older cameras and MP3 players that use SD technology. Be aware of what kind of card your electronic product can use. There are also Micro and Mini versions of the SD card used in Cell Phones and MP3 players.
It is pretty confusing keeping up with these standards. Wikipedia has an excellent page with pictures and information about all the memory cards: MEMORY CARD COMPARISON
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