MMC

What is MMC?

MultiMediaCards (MMCs) are small, removable memory cards used increasingly in mobile phones and digital cameras for storing digital music, games, address books and photos, as well as for enabling a myriad of applications to come together and share digital media including content protected by digital rights management (DRM).

Memory card usage in mobile phones is increasing at a rapid pace. It is projected that by 2006, one third of all mobile phones will have a slot for removable memory cards. MMCs have already been adopted by four of the top five mobile phone manufacturers, and are expected to have the fastest growth among the various memory card formats in that market. One reason for MMCs' growing acceptance is that the MultiMediaCard technology is an open, royalty-free standard.

MMCplus™ and MMCmobile™ Cards, based on the latest MMC System Specification Version 4.0, are the most advanced memory cards available today, offering the highest transfer speeds (up to 52MB/sec, or 416 Mbits/sec), and the greatest flexibility, including support for dual-voltage operation (1.8 and 3/3.3V), and multiple bus widths (x1, x4 and x8 bit).While the new cards have 13 pins to accommodate the additional features, they are backwards compatible with previous version MMCs (7-pins), thus bridging the mobile storage applications of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

MMCs, including MMCplus and MMCmobile Cards, are available as rewritable data storage cards, typically based on flash memory technology, and read-only memory (ROM) cards. MMCs are energy-efficient and cost-effective for consumer electronic devices. With storage capacities up to 1 Gbyte (approximately 640,000 book pages) and higher, the cards are compatible with products from hundreds of the world's leading consumer electronics firms, including Canon, Casio, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, JVC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sanyo, Siemens and many others.

In addition to being a data storage accessory in mobile devices, MMCs open new and sophisticated marketing opportunities for value-added applications and services on mobile devices for ODMs, OEMs, network operators and content providers. Consumers will soon see an explosion of multimedia content both on preloaded MMCs in stores, as well as on downloadable content from mobile phone networks to be stored on MMCs, enabling new services in attractive new devices for the growing mobile community.

Coming soon from the MultiMediaCard Association is a new standard for security on MMCs: Secure MultiMediaCard (SecureMMC) specification version 2.0 complying with OMA DRM 2.0 and mobile security requirements. It addresses the security requirements of future consumer, business and industrial applications, particularly in portable devices.

MMCs offer a unique blend of benefits to:

Consumers:

•    sleek, slim, small and ultra portable

•    better value than competing memory card standards

•    can store media-rich content used in today's most sophisticated electronic products

•    available at leading consumer outlets worldwide

Host Manufacturers:

•    simple interface supported by all major chipset suppliers and design houses

•    widely adopted industry standard

•    compact product packaging

•    alleviates difficult choice of on-board flash memory density

•    interoperable with other phones, cameras, PCs, printers

Network Providers/Operators:

•    revenues and profit for operator/retailer on the card itself

•    branding opportunity with operator's brand name on the card

•    card can be partially preloaded with content samples

•    more downloadable content means increased airtime

•    offers choice of memory density and cost to consumers

Content Distributors:

•    low cost solution to handheld devices

•    readily available

•    shipping today

•    plug and play

•    re-publishers available

 

 

 

MMCA GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Compliance Testing – Allows MMCA members to assure hardware and software compatibility of their cards with the MultiMediaCard standard. It does not currently test host compliance.

ELA.4 - Encryption License Arrangement provision 4 (retail) is filed with the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) for the export of products containing encryption technology.

FAT - File Allocation Table resides on a data storage device (a hard disk or flash memory card) indicating the status and location of all data clusters that are on the device. The file allocation table can be considered a "table of contents" of a memory card. If the file allocation table is damaged or lost, then the card is unreadable. FAT16 and FAT32 standards differ in the width of the cluster address and the number of possible cluster addresses. FAT16 is generally sufficient for the capacities of flash cards available today.

Keitaide-Music (KdM) – Developed in Japan by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, PFU Limited and Nippon Columbia Co., LTD., keitai de myujikku means "Music on Your Mobile Phone". The standard is based on UDAC-MB, a general content protection technology developed by the five companies. It comprises security guidelines, as well as a protocol standard for system interconnection; the Secure MultiMediaCard standard for content protection; and download/playback system standards for mobile handsets.

PKI – Public Key Infrastructure is a set of policies, processes and technologies used to verify, enroll and certify users of a security application. A PKI uses public key cryptography and key certification practices to secure communications, including the Certificate Authority (CA), key directory and management. Other components, such as key recovery and registration, may be included. The result is a form of cryptography wherein each user has a public key in which messages are encrypted when sent, and a private key to decrypt incoming messages.

Secure MMC specification – This non-proprietary and backward-compatible spec with existing MultiMediaCards was developed by Infineon Technologies AG. It serves as a framework for secure storage and retrieval of digital information for mobile etransactions, independent of the device, server or network. It also assures the user that the site being accessed is genuine, while at the same time assuring the server that the user is authorized.

SDMI – The Secure Digital Music Initiative is an industry forum of over 180 companies and organizations representing information technology, consumer electronics, security technology, the worldwide recording industry and Internet service providers involved in protecting the security of digital music.

SPI – The Serial Peripheral Interface is a general-purpose synchronous serial interface originally found on certain Motorola microcontrollers. A virtually identical interface can now be found on various other microcontrollers as well.

TRM - Tamper Resistant Module provides several means of protecting stored data, as well as securing certain operations from being interrupted or corrupted. There are several levels of temper resistance, ranging from simple software scrambling to a fully hardwareshielded microcontroller including several sensors and filters. The latter are usually used in SmartCards and provide the highest level of security against all known attack scenarios such as probing, differential power analysis (DPA), brute force and others. Any attack attempt which is recognized by the security controller may either result in an alarm on the chip, which immediately stops its current operation, or in case of tampering, may result in the deletion of security relevant data in the storage such as secret keys.

Transfer Rate – This is a 2.5MB/sec burst for read and write at 20MHz, the maximum clock rate. Sustained transfer rates depend on individual card manufacturers' products.

UDAC-MB – Universal Distribution with Access Control - Media Base is protection technology that delivers content to a Content Protection Secure MultiMediaCard, or other media, providing a convenient and legal way for users to create, replay and exchange copies of the content. This technology is based on a method for independent delivery of a license key and encrypted content. UDAC-MB was developed by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, PFU Limited and Nippon Columbia Co., LTD.

WAP - Wireless Application Protocol is a de facto standard for mobile communications, allowing mobile devices to access information from a range of sources, notably the Web. WAP content is marked up in WML (Wireless Markup Language) which is similar to HTML and allows screens of information, or 'cards,' to be constructed. A range of WML tags are provided, allowing various interfaces to be created and shown on WAP-enabled devices.

WIM – WAP [Wireless Application Protocol] Identity Module is used in performing Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS), as well as application level security functions, to store and process information needed for user identification and authentication. WIM implementation is tamper-resistant which means that certain physical hardware protection is used, making it difficult or impossible to extract or modify information in the module (including volatile and non-volatile memory).

 

MultiMediaCards

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are MultiMediaCards?

A: MultiMediaCards are the smallest memory cards available. They are used in many handheld electronics devices such as digital cameras, cellular phones, car radios and MP3 players where size and power consumption matter. MultiMediaCards are available in flash memory and read-only memory (ROM) versions today.

Q: What is flash memory?

A: Flash memory is a semiconductor memory technology that allows data and information to be stored and retrieved for extended periods, then erased and reused, much like floppy disks or hard disk drives. Unlike floppy disks or hard disk drives, however, flash memory has no moving parts and consumes less power. A flash memory card can be reused without degrading. MultiMediaCards are a great way to transfer files among different electronic devices. For example, a user can take pictures on a digital camera, save it on a MultiMediaCard flash memory card, view the pictures on his PDA, and burn the picture files into recordable CD-ROM on his PC.

Q: What is ROM-MMC?

A: ROM MultiMediaCards use low-cost, read-only memory technology. This is a way to distribute pre-loaded digital content, similar to CD-ROMs. But unlike CD-ROMs, ROM MultiMediaCards plug-and-play on the user's PDA or PC. The user does not have to hassle with installing applications or downloading content from a CD-ROM. These small memory cards are convenient to carry and easy to use. For example, a traveler can carry ROM MultiMediaCard travel guides of different cities or countries and find the information he needs on his PDA using these cards wherever he goes.

Q: How do MultiMediaCards differ from SD cards and other memory cards?

A: MultiMediaCards and SD cards are based on separate but related industry standards. They are similar in size and appearance except that MultiMediaCards are thinner and have fewer contact pins. Similarities in the standards allow MultiMediaCards to be used in electronic devices with expansion slots that are made for SD cards. However, SD cards cannot be used on devices with slots made specifically for MultiMediaCards. Low-cost read-only memory (ROM) is available as MultiMediaCards but not SD cards. MultiMediaCards are not compatible with other memory cards such as Memory Stick and CompactFlash, since they are based on unrelated standards.

Q: Why should I choose MultiMediaCards?

A: MultiMediaCards are the smallest memory cards available but can pack the same amount of memory as many larger memory card standards. Up to 128Mbyte of flash memory can be held in a card no larger than a postage stamp. They are rugged, lightweight and portable, and are ideal for small handheld electronic devices. Compared to some card types, MultiMediaCards are more competitively priced and allow consumers more choices because MultiMediaCard is an open standard and there are more MultiMediaCard suppliers. Besides plain memory cards, many ROMbased MultiMediaCards, with rich digital content such as travel guides, maps and references, are also available.

Q: What is the largest amount of memory I can buy in a MultiMediaCard today?

A: MultiMediaCards with up to 128Mbytes of memory are available now. 256Mbytes version will be available in 2003.

Q: What products use MultiMediaCards?

A: MultiMediaCards are the memory standard of choice in many advanced small handheld consumer electronics devices such as digital cameras, cellular phones and MP3 players.

Q: Can I use MultiMediaCards in my camera, PDA, cellular phone?

A: Yes, you can use MultiMediaCards in your digital camera, PDA, car radio or cellular phone if it has a memory expansion slot designed for MultiMediaCards or SD cards.

Q: Where can I buy MultiMediaCards?

A: MultiMediaCards are sold as accessories by original equipment manufacturers and as stand-alone products in electronics retail stores.

Q: Can I use the MultiMediaCard purchased with my camera in my PDA?

A: MultiMediaCards are widely used in many different consumer electronic devices and can be used interchangeably. However, electronic filing systems of individual devices may differ, and swapping cards among devices with different filing systems may cause a loss of data. Please check with the device manufacturers for compatibility details.

Q: How do I read MultiMediaCards on my PC?

A: Many MultiMediaCard-compatible card readers are available today that plug into USB or parallel ports and PCMCIA slots.

Q: What is the future of MultiMediaCard?

A: Versions of MultiMediaCards with data security functio ns (SecureMMC™) are in the works. SecureMMCs provide the most robust data security for content protection and for security in m-commerce applications. For the future, even smaller cards (reducedsize MultiMediaCards) for ultra-small personal electronic devices and high-speed MultiMediaCards for rich media applications are being contemplated.

Q: Can users be assured of compliance?

A: The MMCA has a full compliance program, allowing vendors of the cards to certify their products as fully compliant with the MMCA System Specifications Rev. 2.2 or Rev. 3.1.

Q. Where can I find out more information on MultiMediaCards?

A. There is much more information available at the website of the MultiMediaCard Associaton (www.mmca.org.)

 

Note: The term MultiMediaCards is always spelled out as one string, with the MM and C in caps. The MultiMediaCard Association may be abbreviated MMCA. These terms, as well as SecureMMC, are registered trademarks of the MultiMediaCard Association.