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Hitachi flashes its cards

Hitachi will begin sample marketing of high-data-capacity PC cards using 64-megabit flash memory technology in October.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
Hitachi will begin sample marketing of high-data-capacity PC cards using 64-megabit flash memory technology in October.

Hitachi says it is the first company to make commercial products using 64-megabit flash memory. The cards will be compatible with PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) slots and boast capacities as high as 75MB, the company said.

To date, flash cards have used only 16-megabit or 32-megabit flash chips and therefore could muster capacities only as high as 40 megabytes, the company said. Though more expensive, flash memory has some distinct advantages over PC card-based hard drives.

Namely, flash has no moving parts, uses less power, and boasts higher access speeds. In addition, flash memory cards are becoming increasingly popular for use in digital cameras.

Sample shipment prices will begin at about $300.