Smartmedia Card Spec Opened, available free (2000)
27 points by brudgers
by mghackerlady
1 subcomments
I really like SmartMedia cards. They aren't really practical anymore, but they look cool. The small sizes kinda allow it to be used as a kind of solid state floppy, where you really only store one thing on it
Because 5v Smartmedia cards are rare and I have a Roland MC505 that can use them, I am wondering if it is possible to create a hardware emulator using an Arduino.
by EvanAnderson
2 subcomments
My first digital camera used Smartmedia. I had a 32MB card, if memory serves. I could pull pictures off via a serial interface, which was slow and required a proprietary app, or via a FlashPath[0] adapter. Sadly, FlashPath adapters require a driver and aren't actually emulating a floppy diskette. Putting the reader into a floppy diskette shell and using the disk interface to transfer data is still a pretty cool hack, though.
This makes me realize I haven't had to mess with a Memory Stick in many years. Ye gods, I'm glad the younguns never had to deal with Sony's obsession with proprietary tech. They made the loveliest hardware, hamstrung with single-source accessories that cost many times more than the standard version but were only just a little better, if at all.
Today you can more or less buy an SD card and stick it in something and have it work. I am glad we eventually won this war.
by happycube
0 subcomment
Ah, the 2000's, when CompactFlash cards weren't that compact, and SmartMedia wasn't at all smart.
by 1970-01-01
2 subcomments
Before anyone asks, it was cell phones going stratospheric in popularity, with T-flash (sdcard) storage that won the flash format war (excusing USB obviously). Everything else was left to rot.
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