Secure Digital - History

History

In 1999, SanDisk, Matsushita, and Toshiba agreed to develop and market the Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card, which was a development of the MultiMediaCard (MMC). The new card provided both digital rights management (DRM) up to the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) standard, and a high memory density for the time.

The new format was designed to compete with the Memory Stick, a DRM product that Sony released the prior year. It was mistakenly predicted that DRM features would be widely used due to pressure from music and other media suppliers to prevent piracy.

The trademarked SD logo was originally developed for the Super Density Disc, which was the unsuccessful Toshiba entry in the DVD format war. This is why the D resembles an optical disc.

At the 2000 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) trade show, the three companies announced the creation of the SD Card Association (SDA) to promote SD cards. The SD Card Association's headquarters are in San Ramon, California, United States and it comprises some 30 product manufacturers that make interoperable memory cards and devices. Early samples of the SD Card were available in the first quarter of 2000, with production quantities of 32 and 64 MB cards available 3 months later.

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