Embedded SD Card Standard Announced

The SD Card Association has announced its Embedded SD Card standard, enabling phones and CE devices to use one interface for removable and embedded storage.

The SD Card Association has announced (PDF) it will enter the embedded storage market this November with an Embedded SD standard. The idea behind using SD for embedded storage is to simplify the design of things like mobile phones and portable media players by enabling manufacturers to use a single interface for both embedded and removable storage. The Embedded SD standard separated flash memory management from the host, establishes a mechanical and electrical framework for embedded storage (it’ll support both 3.3 and 1.8 Volt power supplies), offer power management and a sleep mode, plus enable devices to boot from embedded SD storage.

“The miniSD and microSD form factors are the leading interfaces for removable storage cards for mobile handsets, currently dominating the market, and are expected to constitute 90 percent of all card slots in mobile handsets in 2010, according to our analysis,” said iSuppli director and chief analyst Nam Hyung Kim, in a statement. “The new Embedded SD standard is built on that leading SD standard and takes aim at mobile handset storage needs like low power consumption, boot functionality, small form factor, and integrated flash management.”

The Embedded SD standard also supports a storage partition mechanism so it can simultaneously support different data formats. Right now, devices using the standard would be limited to 32 GB of embedded storage and 32 GB of removable storage, but storage capacities have a way of increasing over time, and manufacturers should see design and cost savings from using a single interface for that storage .