Panasonic Press Release

ORLANDO, FL (February 20, 2005)—Panasonic, the leading brand by which Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is known today, announced that it will expand its “HIGH SPEED Series” SD Memory Card line up by introducing the “HIGH SPEED” 256MB SD Memory Card with up to 2MB/s data transfer speed this April.

Panasonic “HIGH SPEED Series” 64MB and 128MB SD Memory Cards have been already available in the market, and the company plans to introduce larger capacity “HIGH SPEED Series” SD Memory Cards later this year. The “HIGH SPEED Series” SD Memory Cards offer a data transfer speed suitable for storing still images or small-size motion pictures taken with a digital still camera (DSC) and digital video camera (DVC). Together with the current “PRO HIGH SPEED Series” SD Memory Cards (512MB & 1GB) which boast a transfer speed of up to 20MB/s and the “SUPER HIGH SPEED Series” SD Memory Card (256MB) with up to 10MB/s data transfer speed for more advanced usage such as motion picture recording or fast continuous consecutive shooting, the new “HIGH SPEED” 256MB SD Memory Card allows users to select the type of cards depending on consumers’ needs.

The new 256MB SD Memory Card is scheduled to go on sale in April in the United States, with the manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US$44.99.

New Product Feature Outline
The new affordably-priced “HIGH SPEED” 256MB SD Memory Card achieves a data transfer speed of up to 2MB/s, which is suitable for storing high resolution still images taken with a digital still camera.  Additionally, its durability and reliability rival that of the “PRO HIGH SPEED” and “SUPER HIGH SPEED” models. It has the industry’s widest guaranteed operating temperature range from -25C to 85C, allowing their use in a variety of environments, from ski resorts to the tropics.  All Panasonic SD Memory Cards are assembled under thorough and integrated quality control at the company’s factory in Japan.

Product Development Background
Since its introduction in 1999, the SD Memory Card has come to be used in a wide range of digital products, including digital still cameras and digital video cameras, PCs, PDAs, and cellular phones. Among these devices, DSC is the largest application for the card. The DSC market has recently seen rapid progress toward higher resolution, which has increased the size of data files and the need for the higher capacity cards. At the same time, consecutive shooting is increasing in popularity as a DSC feature. In addition, there is a growing popularity of functions to record and play back video images such as MPEG4 and MPEG2 using memory cards.

Panasonic introduced the “PRO HIGH SPEED Series” (up to 20MB/s data transfer speed) and “SUPER HIGH SPEED” (up to 10MB/s data transfer speed) SD Memory Cards in response to the demands of users who wish to utilize advanced functions such as continuous consecutive shooting or high-resolution motion picture recording.

For those who do not need such advanced functions, but only wish to take and store still images or small-size motion pictures, Panasonic has expanded the “HIGH SPEED Series” SD Memory Card line up. Panasonic anticipates further expanding the line with larger capacity cards later this year.

Specifications:

Dimensions (W x L x T mm)
24 x 32 x 2.1mm

Weight
Approx. 2g

Number of Pins
9 (same as existing SD Memory Card)

Data Transfer Rate
Up to 2MB/s

Operating Voltage
2.7 V to 3.6 V