The M¼-Card is a new memory card being proposed by a Taiwanese technology consortium. The The M¼-Card, which stands for micro ¼ card, is said to be twice as fast as the USB 2.0 standard and compatible with the SecureDigital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC) formats. Will this new card see the light of day? Yes - fully functional cards will be available by the end of 2005. Do we actually need another new format? Hmmmmm.

“Simplicity derives from the use of USB protocols for the digital portion. But the speed is twice that of USB, and the low-power consumption is only one-third or one-fourth that of USB 2.0, said Liu Chih-yuan, who directed the project at ITRI and is chairman of the M¼-Card Alliance. “That’s our strength. It’s a very low-power, high speed USB compatible interface. So we are complementary to the MMC.”

Website: EETimes - Taiwan consortium readying new memory card format