Toshiba today announced the launch of an industry forum to promote a new SD card that integrates Wi-Fi wireless communication with data storage capabilities.

The "Standard Promotion Forum for Memory Cards Embedding Wireless LAN" (provisional name) has been founded by Toshiba and Singapore-based Trek 2000 International Ltd..

In recent years, as digital cameras have achieved huge rates of market penetration, the need for quick and easy way to share photographs has grown. The new card offers an solution that brings new capabilities to the already very popular SDHC format. The card is designed to bring Wi-Fi functionality to digital still cameras that have an SDHC slot. Once in a camera, a card can recognize and communicate with the same type of card in another camera (on a one-to-one basis), and users can exchange photographs quickly and easily. It also allows users to upload and download photographs to and from a server without any need for a cable connection or transfers of the memory card.

The new card is compliant with the SD memory card standard, supports IEEE 802.11b/g and has an 8-gigabyte capacity. It can transfer both JPEG and RAW images, the two most widely used digital formats.



Toshiba and Trek invite digital camera manufacturers and other interested parties in promoting the card and exchanges technical information toward establishing standard specifications.

Toshiba is a market leader in the development and manufacture of NAND flash memory, which is indispensable for today's personal digital devices. The company seeks to enhance and expand its memory business by proposing new applications for NAND flash memories.