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90-609: The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO , a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds; Memory Stick Duo , a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick (including the PRO Duo ); the even smaller Memory Stick Micro ( M2 ), and

180-562: A firmware update. Memory Stick PROs have a marginally higher transfer speed and a maximum theoretical capacity of 32 GB, although GB-sized capacities of more than 2GB are only available in the PRO Duo form factor. High Speed Memory Stick PROs are available, and newer devices support this high-speed mode, allowing for faster file transfers. All Memory Stick PROs larger than 1 GB support this high-speed mode, and High Speed Memory Stick PROs are backwards-compatible with devices that don't support

270-640: A 1024   GB flash chip, with eight stacked 96-layer V-NAND chips and with QLC technology. Flash memory stores information in an array of memory cells made from floating-gate transistors . In single-level cell (SLC) devices, each cell stores only one bit of information. Multi-level cell (MLC) devices, including triple-level cell (TLC) devices, can store more than one bit per cell. The floating gate may be conductive (typically polysilicon in most kinds of flash memory) or non-conductive (as in SONOS flash memory). In flash memory, each memory cell resembles

360-489: A 16   GB flash memory chip that was manufactured with 24 stacked NAND flash chips using a wafer bonding process. Toshiba also used an eight-layer 3D IC for their 32   GB THGBM flash chip in 2008. In 2010, Toshiba used a 16-layer 3D IC for their 128   GB THGBM2 flash chip, which was manufactured with 16 stacked 8   GB chips. In the 2010s, 3D ICs came into widespread commercial use for NAND flash memory in mobile devices . In 2016, Micron and Intel introduced

450-433: A 64   MB NOR flash memory chip. In 2009, Toshiba and SanDisk introduced NAND flash chips with QLC technology storing 4 bits per cell and holding a capacity of 64   Gbit. Samsung Electronics introduced triple-level cell (TLC) technology storing 3-bits per cell, and began mass-producing NAND chips with TLC technology in 2010. Charge trap flash (CTF) technology replaces the polysilicon floating gate, which

540-648: A PRO slot are compatible with the M2/Adapter combination, as the firmware of older devices don't support the higher capacity of some M2 cards. One example is certain Sony CLIÉ PDAs which don't support cards larger than 2 GB. Sony announced on June 1, 2009, that M2 support in Sony Ericsson phones would be dropped in favor of microSD . The Sony DSC-RX0 Mark II made a revived usage of M2 slots. On January 7, 2009, SanDisk and Sony announced

630-434: A built-in card reader, as do many laptops and the majority of Tablet computers . A multi card reader is used for communication with more than one type of flash memory card . Multi card readers do not have built-in memory capacity, but are able to accept multiple types and styles of memory cards. Memory card readers, unlike smartphones, telephones and other devices, such as cameras and digital cameras, allow formatting in

720-548: A certain number of faults (NOR flash, as is used for a BIOS  ROM, is expected to be fault-free). Manufacturers try to maximize the amount of usable storage by shrinking the size of the transistors or cells, however the industry can avoid this and achieve higher storage densities per die by using 3D NAND, which stacks cells on top of each other. NAND flash cells are read by analysing their response to various voltages. NAND flash uses tunnel injection for writing and tunnel release for erasing. NAND flash memory forms

810-517: A charge-trapping mechanism for NOR flash memory cells. CTF was later commercialized by AMD and Fujitsu in 2002. 3D V-NAND (vertical NAND) technology stacks NAND flash memory cells vertically within a chip using 3D charge trap flash (CTP) technology. 3D V-NAND technology was first announced by Toshiba in 2007, and the first device, with 24 layers, was first commercialized by Samsung Electronics in 2013. 3D integrated circuit (3D IC) technology stacks integrated circuit (IC) chips vertically into

900-583: A file system other than FAT (FAT16, FAT32, exFAT) to NTFS in Windows, ext, ext2, ext3 in Linux or HFS, HFS + for Mac OS. Smartphones or other devices like cameras format them only in FAT. Internal card readers are usually connected to internal USB 1.1 / 2.0 / 3.x ports The number of compatible memory cards varies from reader to reader and can include more than 20 different types. The number of different memory cards that

990-638: A microSD for files on the device in question. On December 11, 2006, Sony, together with SanDisk , announced the Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo . While only serial and 4-bit parallel interfaces are supported in the Memory Stick PRO format, an 8-bit parallel interface was added to the Memory Stick PRO-HG format. Also, the maximum interface clock frequency was increased from 40 MHz to 60 MHz. With these enhancements,

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1080-425: A more typical 10,000 or 100,000 erase cycles, up to 1,000,000 erase cycles. NOR-based flash was the basis of early flash-based removable media; CompactFlash was originally based on it, though later cards moved to less expensive NAND flash. NAND flash has reduced erase and write times, and requires less chip area per cell, thus allowing greater storage density and lower cost per bit than NOR flash. However,

1170-428: A multi card reader can accept is expressed as x-in-1, with x being a figure of merit indicating the number of memory cards accepted, such as 35-in-1. There are three categories of card readers sorted by the type and quantity of the card slots: single card reader (e.g. 1x SD-only), multi card reader (e.g. 9-in-1) and series card reader (e.g. 4x SD-only). Some kinds of memory cards with their own USB functions do not need

1260-518: A planar charge trap cell into a cylindrical form. As of 2020, 3D NAND flash memories by Micron and Intel instead use floating gates, however, Micron 128 layer and above 3D NAND memories use a conventional charge trap structure, due to the dissolution of the partnership between Micron and Intel. Charge trap 3D NAND flash is thinner than floating gate 3D NAND. In floating gate 3D NAND, the memory cells are completely separated from one another, whereas in charge trap 3D NAND, vertical groups of memory cells share

1350-526: A portable device, in a form that can easily be removed for access by a personal computer. For example, Sony digital compact cameras use Memory Stick for storing image files. With a Memory Stick-capable memory card reader a user can copy the pictures taken with the Sony digital camera to a computer. Sony typically included Memory Stick reader hardware in its first-party consumer electronics, such as digital cameras, digital music players , PDAs , cellular phones ,

1440-463: A separate flash memory controller chip. The NAND type is found mainly in memory cards , USB flash drives , solid-state drives (those produced since 2009), feature phones , smartphones , and similar products, for general storage and transfer of data. NAND or NOR flash memory is also often used to store configuration data in digital products, a task previously made possible by EEPROM or battery-powered static RAM . A key disadvantage of flash memory

1530-421: A separate die inside the package. The origins of flash memory can be traced back to the development of the floating-gate MOSFET (FGMOS) , also known as the floating-gate transistor. The original MOSFET was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960, after Frosch and Derick discovered surface passivation and used their discovery to create the first planar transistors. Dawon Kahng went on to develop

1620-489: A single 3D IC chip package. Toshiba introduced 3D IC technology to NAND flash memory in April 2007, when they debuted a 16   GB eMMC compliant (product number THGAM0G7D8DBAI6, often abbreviated THGAM on consumer websites) embedded NAND flash memory chip, which was manufactured with eight stacked 2   GB NAND flash chips. In September 2007, Hynix Semiconductor (now SK Hynix ) introduced 24-layer 3D IC technology, with

1710-424: A single memory product. A single-level NOR flash cell in its default state is logically equivalent to a binary "1" value, because current will flow through the channel under application of an appropriate voltage to the control gate, so that the bitline voltage is pulled down. A NOR flash cell can be programmed, or set to a binary "0" value, by the following procedure: To erase a NOR flash cell (resetting it to

1800-409: A single supply voltage and produce the high voltages that are required using on-chip charge pumps . Over half the energy used by a 1.8 V-NAND flash chip is lost in the charge pump itself. Since boost converters are inherently more efficient than charge pumps, researchers developing low-power SSDs have proposed returning to the dual Vcc/Vpp supply voltages used on all early flash chips, driving

1890-488: A standard metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) except that the transistor has two gates instead of one. The cells can be seen as an electrical switch in which current flows between two terminals (source and drain) and is controlled by a floating gate (FG) and a control gate (CG). The CG is similar to the gate in other MOS transistors, but below this, there is the FG insulated all around by an oxide layer. The FG

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1980-482: A technology known as CMOS Under the Array/CMOS Under Array (CUA), Core over Periphery (COP), Periphery Under Cell (PUA), or Xtacking, in which the control circuitry for the flash memory is placed under or above the flash memory cell array. This has allowed for an increase in the number of planes or sections a flash memory chip has, increasing from 2 planes to 4, without increasing the area dedicated to

2070-540: A theoretical limit of 32 GB and maximum transfer speed of 160 Mbit/s. However, as with the PRO Duo format, it has been expanded through the XC series as Memory Stick XC Micro and Memory Stick XC-HG Micro , both with the theoretical maximum capacity of 2 TB. The M2 comes with an adapter, much like the Duo Sticks, to ensure physical compatibility with Memory Stick PRO devices. However, not all devices with

2160-542: A theoretical transfer rate of 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s) is achieved, which is three times faster than the Memory Stick PRO format. In a joint venture with SanDisk , Sony released a new Memory Stick format on February 6, 2006. The Memory Stick Micro ( M2 ) measures 15 × 12.5 × 1.2 mm (roughly one-quarter the size of the Duo) with 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB capacities available. The format has

2250-843: A time. NAND flash also uses floating-gate transistors , but they are connected in a way that resembles a NAND gate : several transistors are connected in series, and the bit line is pulled low only if all the word lines are pulled high (above the transistors' V T ). These groups are then connected via some additional transistors to a NOR-style bit line array in the same way that single transistors are linked in NOR ;flash. Compared to NOR flash, replacing single transistors with serial-linked groups adds an extra level of addressing. Whereas NOR flash might address memory by page then word, NAND flash might address it by page, word and bit. Bit-level addressing suits bit-serial applications (such as hard disk emulation), which access only one bit at

2340-453: A time. Execute-in-place applications, on the other hand, require every bit in a word to be accessed simultaneously. This requires word-level addressing. In any case, both bit and word addressing modes are possible with either NOR or NAND flash. To read data, first the desired group is selected (in the same way that a single transistor is selected from a NOR array). Next, most of the word lines are pulled up above V T2 , while one of them

2430-506: A type of flash memory with a charge trap method. In 1998, Boaz Eitan of Saifun Semiconductors (later acquired by Spansion ) patented a flash memory technology named NROM that took advantage of a charge trapping layer to replace the conventional floating gate used in conventional flash memory designs. In 2000, an Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) research team led by Richard M. Fastow, Egyptian engineer Khaled Z. Ahmed and Jordanian engineer Sameer Haddad (who later joined Spansion) demonstrated

2520-450: A variation, the floating-gate MOSFET, with Taiwanese-American engineer Simon Min Sze at Bell Labs in 1967. They proposed that it could be used as floating-gate memory cells for storing a form of programmable read-only memory ( PROM ) that is both non-volatile and re-programmable. Early types of floating-gate memory included EPROM (erasable PROM) and EEPROM (electrically erasable PROM) in

2610-453: A wide range of actual formats, including three different form factors. Introduced in July 1998. The original Memory Stick is approximately the size and thickness of a stick of chewing gum. It was available in capacities from 4 MB to 128 MB (1 MB = one million bytes). It was available both with and without MagicGate support. The MagicGate-capable memory sticks were white-colored, while

2700-444: Is an electrically insulating tunnel oxide layer between the floating gate and the silicon, so the gate "floats" above the silicon. The oxide keeps the electrons confined to the floating gate. Degradation or wear (and the limited endurance of floating gate Flash memory) occurs due to the extremely high electric field (10 million volts per centimeter) experienced by the oxide. Such high voltage densities can break atomic bonds over time in

2790-525: Is interposed between the CG and the MOSFET channel. Because the FG is electrically isolated by its insulating layer, electrons placed on it are trapped. When the FG is charged with electrons, this charge screens the electric field from the CG, thus, increasing the threshold voltage (V T ) of the cell. This means that the V T of the cell can be changed between the uncharged FG threshold voltage (V T1 ) and

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2880-556: Is often employed in scenarios where cost-effective, high-capacity storage is crucial, such as in USB drives, memory cards, and solid-state drives ( SSDs ). The primary differentiator lies in their use cases and internal structures. NOR flash is optimal for applications requiring quick access to individual bytes, like in embedded systems for program execution. NAND flash, on the other hand, shines in scenarios demanding cost-effective, high-capacity storage with sequential data access. Flash memory

2970-636: Is programmed in blocks while EEPROM is programmed in bytes. According to Toshiba, the name "flash" was suggested by Masuoka's colleague, Shōji Ariizumi, because the erasure process of the memory contents reminded him of the flash of a camera . Masuoka and colleagues presented the invention of NOR flash in 1984, and then NAND flash at the IEEE 1987 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco. Toshiba commercially launched NAND flash memory in 1987. Intel Corporation introduced

3060-422: Is pulled up to V I . The series group will conduct (and pull the bit line low) if the selected bit has not been programmed. Despite the additional transistors, the reduction in ground wires and bit lines allows a denser layout and greater storage capacity per chip. (The ground wires and bit lines are actually much wider than the lines in the diagrams.) In addition, NAND flash is typically permitted to contain

3150-484: Is sandwiched between a blocking gate oxide above and a tunneling oxide below it, with an electrically insulating silicon nitride layer; the silicon nitride layer traps electrons. In theory, CTF is less prone to electron leakage, providing improved data retention. Because CTF replaces the polysilicon with an electrically insulating nitride, it allows for smaller cells and higher endurance (lower degradation or wear). However, electrons can become trapped and accumulate in

3240-510: Is that it can endure only a relatively small number of write cycles in a specific block. NOR flash is known for its direct random access capabilities, making it apt for executing code directly. Its architecture allows for individual byte access, facilitating faster read speeds compared to NAND flash. NAND flash memory operates with a different architecture, relying on a serial access approach. This makes NAND suitable for high-density data storage but less efficient for random access tasks. NAND flash

3330-513: Is thus highly suitable for use in mass-storage devices, such as memory cards and solid-state drives (SSD). For example, SSDs store data using multiple NAND flash memory chips. The first NAND-based removable memory card format was SmartMedia , released in 1995. Many others followed, including MultiMediaCard , Secure Digital , Memory Stick , and xD-Picture Card . A new generation of memory card formats, including RS-MMC , miniSD and microSD , feature extremely small form factors. For example,

3420-485: Is used in computers , PDAs , digital audio players , digital cameras , mobile phones , synthesizers , video games , scientific instrumentation , industrial robotics , and medical electronics . Flash memory has a fast read access time but it is not as fast as static RAM or ROM. In portable devices, it is preferred to use flash memory because of its mechanical shock resistance since mechanical drives are more prone to mechanical damage. Because erase cycles are slow,

3510-420: The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show could use SD and SDHC cards as well as Memory Sticks. Furthermore, Sony announced the release of its own line of SD cards. Many claimed this development as the end of the format war between Memory Stick and SD card. However, Sony did not abandon the format at this time, and indicated that it would continue development of the format for the foreseeable future. A prime example

3600-610: The Memory Stick PRO-HG , a high speed variant of the PRO to be used in high-definition video and still cameras. As a proprietary format, Sony exclusively used Memory Stick on its products in the 2000s such as Cyber-shot digital cameras, Handycam digital camcorders, Sony Ericsson mobile phones, WEGA and Bravia TV sets, VAIO PCs, digital audio players, and the PlayStation Portable game console, with

3690-554: The NOR and NAND logic gates . Both use the same cell design, consisting of floating-gate MOSFETs . They differ at the circuit level depending on whether the state of the bit line or word lines is pulled high or low: in NAND flash, the relationship between the bit line and the word lines resembles a NAND gate; in NOR flash, it resembles a NOR gate. Flash memory, a type of floating-gate memory,

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3780-621: The VAIO line of laptop computers, TV sets under the WEGA and Bravia names, and Sony's handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Portable . A special Memory Stick can be inserted in the hindquarters of Sony's AIBO robot pet, to enable the use of Aiboware—software intended for use on AIBOs. The Sticks include a copy protection mechanism used by the robot, allowing users to write programs. These are referred to as programmable or programming . Only 8 MB and 16 MB versions are available. An adapter

3870-502: The "1" state), a large voltage of the opposite polarity is applied between the CG and source terminal, pulling the electrons off the FG through Fowler–Nordheim tunneling (FN tunneling). This is known as Negative gate source source erase. Newer NOR memories can erase using negative gate channel erase, which biases the wordline on a NOR memory cell block and the P-well of the memory cell block to allow FN tunneling to be carried out, erasing

3960-712: The 1970s. However, early floating-gate memory required engineers to build a memory cell for each bit of data, which proved to be cumbersome, slow, and expensive, restricting floating-gate memory to niche applications in the 1970s, such as military equipment and the earliest experimental mobile phones . Modern EEPROM based on Fowler-Nordheim tunnelling to erase data was invented by Bernward and patented by Siemens in 1974. And further developed between 1976 and 1978 by Eliyahou Harari at Hughes Aircraft Company and George Perlegos and others at Intel. This led to Masuoka's invention of flash memory at Toshiba in 1980. The improvement between EEPROM and flash being that flash

4050-438: The FG is charged. The binary value of the cell is sensed by determining whether there is current flowing through the transistor when V I is asserted on the CG. In a multi-level cell device, which stores more than one bit per cell, the amount of current flow is sensed (rather than simply its presence or absence), in order to determine more precisely the level of charge on the FG. Floating gate MOSFETs are so named because there

4140-540: The I/O interface of NAND flash does not provide a random-access external address bus. Rather, data must be read on a block-wise basis, with typical block sizes of hundreds to thousands of bits. This makes NAND flash unsuitable as a drop-in replacement for program ROM, since most microprocessors and microcontrollers require byte-level random access. In this regard, NAND flash is similar to other secondary data storage devices , such as hard disks and optical media , and

4230-535: The Memory Stick Duo due to its 128 MB size limitation, but has kept the same form factor as the Duo. A simple adapter allows Memory Stick Duo to be used in devices designed to accept the original Memory Stick form factor. The Memory Stick PRO Duo (MSPD) quickly replaced the Memory Stick Duo due to the Duo's size limitation of 128 MB and slow transfer speed. Memory Stick PRO Duos are available in all

4320-483: The Memory Stick PRO Duo variant). It is slightly smaller than the competing Secure Digital (SD) format and roughly two thirds the length of the standard Memory Stick form factor, but costs more. Memory Stick Duos are available with the same features as the larger standard Memory Stick, available with and without high speed mode, and with and without MagicGate support. The Memory Stick PRO Duo has replaced

4410-506: The Memory Stick XC format (tentatively named "Memory Stick Format Series for Extended High Capacity" at the time). The Memory Stick XC has a maximum theoretical 2 TB capacity, 64 times larger than that of the Memory Stick PRO Duo which is limited to 32 GB. XC series has the same form factors as PRO series, and supports MagicGate content protection technology as well as Access Control function as PRO series does. In line with

4500-404: The Memory Stick is suitable for use with AVCHD recording products or other faster Memory Stick enabled devices by providing appropriate minimum write performance. Flash memory Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash , are named for

4590-490: The card reader, such as the Intelligent Stick memory card, which can plug directly into a USB slot. The USB device class used is 0x08 . Modern UDMA-7 CompactFlash Cards and UHS-I Secure Digital cards provide data rates in excess of 89 MB / s and up to 145 MB/s, when used with memory card readers capable of USB 3.0 data transfer rates. As of 2011, Secure Digital memory cards received an additional option of

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4680-466: The cell block. Older memories used source erase, in which a high voltage was applied to the source and then electrons from the FG were moved to the source. Modern NOR flash memory chips are divided into erase segments (often called blocks or sectors). The erase operation can be performed only on a block-wise basis; all the cells in an erase segment must be erased together. Programming of NOR cells, however, generally can be performed one byte or word at

4770-502: The cell by increasing the MOSFET's threshold voltage. This, in turn, changes the drain-source current that flows through the transistor for a given gate voltage, which is ultimately used to encode a binary value. The Fowler-Nordheim tunneling effect is reversible, so electrons can be added to or removed from the floating gate, processes traditionally known as writing and erasing. Despite the need for relatively high programming and erasing voltages, virtually all flash chips today require only

4860-402: The cells are logically set to 1. Data can only be programmed in one pass to a page in a block that was erased. The programming process is set one or more cells from 1 to 0. Any cells that have been set to 0 by programming can only be reset to 1 by erasing the entire block. This means that before new data can be programmed into a page that already contains data, the current contents of the page plus

4950-584: The control or periphery circuitry. This increases the number of IO operations per flash chip or die, but it also introduces challenges when building capacitors for charge pumps used to write to the flash memory. Some flash dies have as many as 6 planes. As of August 2017, microSD cards with a capacity up to 400 GB (400 billion bytes) are available. The same year, Samsung combined 3D IC chip stacking with its 3D V-NAND and TLC technologies to manufacture its 512   GB KLUFG8R1EM flash memory chip with eight stacked 64-layer V-NAND chips. In 2019, Samsung produced

5040-404: The core of the removable USB storage devices known as USB flash drives , as well as most memory card formats and solid-state drives available today. The hierarchical structure of NAND flash starts at a cell level which establishes strings, then pages, blocks, planes and ultimately a die. A string is a series of connected NAND cells in which the source of one cell is connected to the drain of

5130-497: The first commercial NOR type flash chip in 1988. NOR-based flash has long erase and write times, but provides full address and data buses , allowing random access to any memory location . This makes it a suitable replacement for older read-only memory (ROM) chips, which are used to store program code that rarely needs to be updated, such as a computer's BIOS or the firmware of set-top boxes . Its endurance may be from as little as 100 erase cycles for an on-chip flash memory, to

5220-462: The flash storage device (such as SSD ), the data actually written to the flash memory may be 0011 1100. Vertical NAND (V-NAND) or 3D NAND memory stacks memory cells vertically and uses a charge trap flash architecture. The vertical layers allow larger areal bit densities without requiring smaller individual cells. It is also sold under the trademark BiCS Flash , which is a trademark of Kioxia Corporation (formerly Toshiba Memory Corporation). 3D NAND

5310-418: The floating gate. This is why data retention goes down and the risk of data loss increases with increasing degradation. The silicon oxide in a cell degrades with every erase operation. The degradation increases the amount of negative charge in the cell over time due to trapped electrons in the oxide and negates some of the control gate voltage, this over time also makes erasing the cell slower, so to maintain

5400-400: The format being licensed to a few other companies early in its lifetime. With the increasing popularity of Secure Digital around 2010, Sony started to include SD in their devices, marking a surrender by Sony of its format war in the memory-card business and the end to further serious development of the format. Despite this, Sony continues to support Memory Stick on certain newer devices through

5490-504: The format had a lukewarm reception, but it soon increased in popularity, especially after the licensing deal. In spring 2001, Memory Stick attained 25% market share (against CompactFlash 's 40% and SmartMedia 's 32%), up from 7% a year earlier. By May 2001, total shipment of Memory Stick units surpassed 10 million. However the SD card , jointly developed by Toshiba , Panasonic and SanDisk , became widely popular among companies and soon became

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5580-435: The high Vpp voltage for all flash chips in an SSD with a single shared external boost converter. In spacecraft and other high-radiation environments, the on-chip charge pump is the first part of the flash chip to fail, although flash memories will continue to work – in read-only mode – at much higher radiation levels. In NOR flash, each cell has one end connected directly to ground, and

5670-446: The high-speed mode. High-capacity Memory Sticks such as the 4 GB versions are expensive compared to other types of flash memory such as SD cards and CompactFlash. As of 2020, 512 MB Memory Stick PRO can be bought. Introduced in July 2002. The Memory Stick Duo was developed in response to Sony's need for a smaller flash memory card for pocket-sized digital cameras, cell phones and the PlayStation Portable (the latter of which supported

5760-415: The higher charged FG threshold voltage (V T2 ) by changing the FG charge. In order to read a value from the cell, an intermediate voltage (V I ) between V T1 and V T2 is applied to the CG. If the channel conducts at V I , the FG must be uncharged (if it were charged, there would not be conduction because V I is less than V T2 ). If the channel does not conduct at the V I , it indicates that

5850-411: The joint development of an expanded Memory Stick PRO format tentatively named "Memory Stick PRO Format for Extended High Capacity". Sony has since finalized the format and released its specification under the new name, Memory Stick XC (see below). There exist adapters for those who want to use microSD cards, on devices that only support Memory Stick PRO Duo cards, that allows those to use the storage on

5940-813: The large block sizes used in flash memory erasing give it a significant speed advantage over non-flash EEPROM when writing large amounts of data. As of 2019, flash memory costs greatly less than byte-programmable EEPROM and had become the dominant memory type wherever a system required a significant amount of non-volatile solid-state storage . EEPROMs, however, are still used in applications that require only small amounts of storage, e.g. in SPD implementations on computer memory modules. Flash memory packages can use die stacking with through-silicon vias and several dozen layers of 3D TLC NAND cells (per die) simultaneously to achieve capacities of up to 1 tebibyte per package using 16 stacked dies and an integrated flash controller as

6030-659: The microSD card has an area of just over 1.5 cm , with a thickness of less than 1 mm. NAND flash has achieved significant levels of memory density as a result of several major technologies that were commercialized during the late 2000s to early 2010s. NOR flash was the most common type of Flash memory sold until 2005, when NAND flash overtook NOR flash in sales. Multi-level cell (MLC) technology stores more than one bit in each memory cell . NEC demonstrated multi-level cell (MLC) technology in 1998, with an 80   Mb flash memory chip storing 2 bits per cell. STMicroelectronics also demonstrated MLC in 2000, with

6120-604: The most popular flash format – by November 2003 it held 42% market share in the United States, ahead of CompactFlash's 26% and Memory Stick with 16%. Eventually Sony itself became the only company to support the format. Sony was often criticized for the Memory Stick, as they were deemed to be expensive compared to other formats. As of January 2010, it appeared that Sony had begun to combine support for SD / SDHC and Memory Stick formats in their products. All digital cameras and camcorders announced by Sony at

6210-422: The new data must be copied to a new, erased page. If a suitable erased page is available, the data can be written to it immediately. If no erased page is available, a block must be erased before copying the data to a page in that block. The old page is then marked as invalid and is available for erasing and reuse. This is different from operating system LBA view, for example, if operating system writes 1100 0011 to

6300-414: The next one. Depending on the NAND technology, a string typically consists of 32 to 128 NAND cells. Strings are organised into pages which are then organised into blocks in which each string is connected to a separate line called a bitline. All cells with the same position in the string are connected through the control gates by a wordline. A plane contains a certain number of blocks that are connected through

6390-474: The nitride, leading to degradation. Leakage is exacerbated at high temperatures since electrons become more excited with increasing temperatures. CTF technology however still uses a tunneling oxide and blocking layer which are the weak points of the technology, since they can still be damaged in the usual ways (the tunnel oxide can be degraded due to extremely high electric fields and the blocking layer due to Anode Hot Hole Injection (AHHI). Degradation or wear of

6480-413: The number of bits increases, the number of possible states also increases and thus the cell is less tolerant of adjustments to programming voltages, because there is less space between the voltage levels that define each state in a cell. The process of moving electrons from the control gate and into the floating gate is called Fowler–Nordheim tunneling , and it fundamentally changes the characteristics of

6570-516: The other end connected directly to a bit line. This arrangement is called "NOR flash" because it acts like a NOR gate: when one of the word lines (connected to the cell's CG) is brought high, the corresponding storage transistor acts to pull the output bit line low. NOR flash continues to be the technology of choice for embedded applications requiring a discrete non-volatile memory device. The low read latencies characteristic of NOR devices allow for both direct code execution and data storage in

6660-435: The oxides is the reason why flash memory has limited endurance, and data retention goes down (the potential for data loss increases) with increasing degradation, since the oxides lose their electrically insulating characteristics as they degrade. The oxides must insulate against electrons to prevent them from leaking which would cause data loss. In 1991, NEC researchers including N. Kodama, K. Oyama and Hiroki Shirai described

6750-413: The performance and reliability of the NAND chip, the cell must be retired from use. Endurance also decreases with the number of bits in a cell. With more bits in a cell, the number of possible states (each represented by a different voltage level) in a cell increases and is more sensitive to the voltages used for programming. Voltages may be adjusted to compensate for degradation of the silicon oxide, and as

6840-459: The relatively thin oxide, gradually degrading its electrically insulating properties and allowing electrons to be trapped in and pass through freely (leak) from the floating gate into the oxide, increasing the likelihood of data loss since the electrons (the quantity of which is used to represent different charge levels, each assigned to a different combination of bits in MLC Flash) are normally in

6930-501: The release of the Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX on May 17, 2011, which was considered the fastest card ever made by the manufacturer. It measures 20 × 31 × 1.6 mm, with 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB versions available. Also, the format offers a maximum transfer speed of 50 MB/s. As of early 2008, Mark 2 -certified versions of the Memory Stick PRO Duo became available. The Mark 2 designation indicates

7020-560: The rest of the industry, the XC series uses the newer exFAT file system due to size and formatting limitations of FAT/FAT16/FAT32 filesystems used in the PRO series. A maximum transfer speed of 480 Mbit/s (60 Mbyte/s) is achieved through 8-bit parallel data transfer. No Memory Stick XC cards were released to the market, likely due to domination of SD cards; its equivalent here is named SDXC and eventually became more successful than any other exFAT-based memory card format. Sony announced

7110-426: The same as the original Memory Stick. The Memory Stick PRO , introduced on January 9, 2003, as a joint effort between Sony and SanDisk , would be the longer-lasting solution to the space problem. Most devices that use the original Memory Sticks support both the original and PRO sticks since both formats have identical form factors. Some readers that were not compatible could be upgraded to Memory Stick PRO support via

7200-410: The same bitline. A flash die consists of one or more planes, and the peripheral circuitry that is needed to perform all the read, write, and erase operations. The architecture of NAND flash means that data can be read and programmed (written) in pages, typically between 4 KiB and 16 KiB in size, but can only be erased at the level of entire blocks consisting of multiple pages. When a block is erased, all

7290-407: The same silicon nitride material. An individual memory cell is made up of one planar polysilicon layer containing a hole filled by multiple concentric vertical cylinders. The hole's polysilicon surface acts as the gate electrode. The outermost silicon dioxide cylinder acts as the gate dielectric, enclosing a silicon nitride cylinder that stores charge, in turn enclosing a silicon dioxide cylinder as

7380-457: The same variants as the larger Memory Stick PRO, with and without High Speed mode, and with and without MagicGate support. Sony has released different versions of Memory Stick PRO Duo. A Memory Stick PRO Duo with MagicGate was released as a 512 MB stick. Additionally, a 16 GB version in March 2008 and another a 32 GB version on August 21, 2009. In 2009, Sony and SanDisk also announced

7470-600: The serial-linked groups in which conventional NAND flash memory is configured. There is also string stacking, which builds several 3D NAND memory arrays or "plugs" separately, but stacked together to create a product with a higher number of 3D NAND layers on a single die. Often, two or 3 arrays are stacked. The misalignment between plugs is in the order of 30 to 10nm. Growth of a group of V-NAND cells begins with an alternating stack of conducting (doped) polysilicon layers and insulating silicon dioxide layers. Memory card reader Some printers and Smartphones have

7560-569: The standard version was purple. The original Memory Stick is no longer manufactured. In response to the storage limitations of the original Memory Stick, Sony introduced the Memory Stick Select at CES 2003 on January 9. The Memory Stick Select contained two separate 128 MB partitions which the user could switch between using a physical switch on the card. This solution was fairly unpopular, but it did give users of older Memory Stick devices more capacity. Its physical size remained

7650-418: The tunnel dielectric that surrounds a central rod of conducting polysilicon which acts as the conducting channel. Memory cells in different vertical layers do not interfere with each other, as the charges cannot move vertically through the silicon nitride storage medium, and the electric fields associated with the gates are closely confined within each layer. The vertical collection is electrically identical to

7740-617: The use of adaptors. The original Memory Stick, which was launched in October 1998, was available in capacities up to 128 MB. In October 1999, Sony licensed the technology to Fujitsu , Aiwa , Sanyo , Sharp , Pioneer and Kenwood , in a bid to avoid a repetition of the Betamax failure. Other companies were also licensees to the format. Some early examples of Memory Stick usage by third-party companies include Sharp's MP3 players, Alpine 's in-dash players, and Epson 's printers. Initially

7830-417: Was first announced by Toshiba in 2007. V-NAND was first commercially manufactured by Samsung Electronics in 2013. V-NAND uses a charge trap flash geometry (which was commercially introduced in 2002 by AMD and Fujitsu ) that stores charge on an embedded silicon nitride film. Such a film is more robust against point defects and can be made thicker to hold larger numbers of electrons. V-NAND wraps

7920-616: Was invented by Fujio Masuoka at Toshiba in 1980 and is based on EEPROM technology. Toshiba began marketing flash memory in 1987. EPROMs had to be erased completely before they could be rewritten. NAND flash memory, however, may be erased, written, and read in blocks (or pages), which generally are much smaller than the entire device. NOR flash memory allows a single machine word to be written – to an erased location – or read independently. A flash memory device typically consists of one or more flash memory chips (each holding many flash memory cells), along with

8010-519: Was made for the original Memory Stick that allowed them to be used in later Sony Mavica models. This adapter, which took CR2016 cells for power, served a dual purpose of expanding storage capacity of the Mavica and giving those who did not have an existing Memory Stick drive a means of computer interfacing. With the Mavica FD92 and FD97 dedicated Memory Stick slots were added. Memory Sticks include

8100-414: Was the development of WiFi transfers through a special Memory Stick PRO-Duo which was still in development as of 2011. Sony's first significant migration away from Memory Stick did not come until 2019, when it introduced the α7R IV full-frame mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera without Memory Stick support, opting instead for dual SDXC slots. Typically, Memory Sticks are used as storage media for

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