Say goodbye to floppies, it's memory cards now

The Straits Times, 22 Oct 2002

DEVELOPMENTS in storage media are making floppy discs look prehistoric, barely three years after they were considered essential tools in the home and office. When all computer users had to store were text files and spreadsheets, floppy discs offered an adequate 1.44 MB of space. While CDs and later DVDs were among the first media to push floppies aside, they are not as robust or as small as some other options around today.

Today, memory cards 90 per cent smaller than a floppy disc can store 355 times more data - and just as well, now that users are hoarding music, photo and video files instead of just text-based information. Helping to break new ground is Singapore-based Trek 2000.

It has innovated around a basic formula: a thumb-sized device that connects to a PC through a USB port. Known as a thumb drive, its capacity ranges from 8 MB to 512 MB, and a 1 GB model is expected by the end of the year. Simply boosting capacity has not been enough for assistant general manager Poo Teng Pin.

'We are now selling a ThumbDrive Touch, which has biometric features,' he told The Straits Times. Any part of the data stored on the new drive is released only when the correct set of fingerprints is placed on the drive's touch-sensitive panel. One model is even waterproof. The device can be dropped into a glass of water and still reproduce its contents faithfully.

Away from the PC, digital cameras, MP3 players, personal digital assistants (PDAs), voice recorders and a host of other portable devices are fighting a storage battle in the form of memory cards.

Sony's Memory Sticks, smaller than a stick of chewing gum, store up to 128 MB. It has locked horns with Matsushita, another Japanese company, with the latter's Secure Digital (SD) memory cards having a slight edge in the market now.

The Memory Stick boasts support from 345 companies worldwide and can be used with some Acer computers, Hewlett-Packard (HP) printers and Pioneer music systems. But other than Sony, few companies have actually made it an integral part of their products.

On the other hand, acceptance of the SD card has been more widespread, thanks to its early adoption by makers Palm, Handspring, Toshiba and HP. SD memory cards can now store 512 MB in their postage stamp-sized frame.

Next year, a 1 GB version will be available, and a 4 GB one is on the horizon.

RIP floppy discs.

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