SanDisk MultiMediaCard and Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard Product Manual Version 1.3 Document No. 80-36-00320 April 2005 SanDisk Corporation Corporate Headquarters • 140 Caspian Court • Sunnyvale, CA 94089 Phone (408) 542-0500 • Fax (408) 542-0503 www.sandisk.com Revision 1.3 MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard Product Manual SanDisk® Corporation general policy does not recommend the use of its products in life support applications where in a failure or malfunction of the product may directly threaten life or injury. Per SanDisk Terms and Conditions of Sale, the user of SanDisk products in life support applications assumes all risk of such use and indemnifies SanDisk against all damages. See “Disclaimer of Liability.” This document is for information use only and is subject to change without prior notice. SanDisk Corporation assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear in this document, nor for incidental or consequential damages resulting from the furnishing, performance or use of this material. No part of this document may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrievable manner or translated into any language or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual or otherwise, without the prior written consent of an officer of SanDisk Corporation. All parts of the SanDisk documentation are protected by copyright law and all rights are reserved. SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are registered trademarks of SanDisk Corporation. CompactFlash is a U.S. registered trademark of SanDisk Corporation. Product names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. © 2005 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk products are covered or licensed under one or more of the following U.S. Patent Nos. 5,070,032; 5,095,344; 5,168,465; 5,172,338; 5,198,380; 5,200,959; 5,268,318; 5,268,870; 5,272,669; 5,418,752; 5,602,987. Other U.S. and foreign patents awarded and pending. Lit. No. 80-36-00320 Rev.1.3 04/05 Printed in U.S.A. Revision History April 2004 Revision 0.1—Initial release April 2004 Revision 0.2—Minor edits and addition of RS-MMC physical dimensions May 2004 Revision 1.0—Added document number and updated to v1.0 release July 2004 Revision 1.1—Corrected TAAC value in CSD Register; updated App B Oct 2004 Revision 1.2—Changed specific values in Table 3-10; updated sales office information Mar/Apr 2005 Revision 1.3—Added part numbers to Table 1-1, revised values to reflect some changes to the MMCA spec, other minor and technical changes © 2005 SanDisk Corporation i 4/22/2005 Chapter 1 – Introduction Revision 1.3 MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard Product Manual 1 Introduction 1.1 General Description The SanDisk MultiMediaCard and Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC) are very small, removable flash storage devices, designed specifically for storage applications that put a premium on small form factor, low power and low cost. Flash is the ideal storage medium for portable, battery-powered devices. It features low power consumption and is non-volatile, requiring no power to maintain the stored data. It also has a wide operating range for temperature, shock and vibration. The MultiMediaCard and RS-MultiMediaCard are well suited to meet the needs of small, low power, electronic devices. With form factors of 32 mm x 24 mm and 1.4 mm thick for the MultiMediaCard and 18 mm x 24 mm x1.4 mm for the RS-MultiMediaCard, these cards can be used in a wide variety of portable devices like mobile phones, and voice recorders. To support this wide range of applications, the MultiMediaCard Protocol, a simple seven- pin serial interface, is designed for maximum scalability and configurability. All device and interface configuration data (such as maximum frequency, card identification, etc.) are stored on the card. The SanDisk MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard interface allows for easy integration into any design, regardless of microprocessor used. For compatibility with existing controllers, the card offers, in addition to the card interface, an alternate communication protocol, which is based on the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) standard. The MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard provides up to 256 million bytes of memory using SanDisk Flash memory chips, which were designed by SanDisk especially for use in mass storage applications. In addition to the mass storage specific flash memory chip, the MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard includes an on-card intelligent controller which manages interface protocols and data storage and retrieval, as well as Error Correction Code (ECC) algorithms, defect handling and diagnostics, power management and clock control. Figure 1-1 MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard Block Diagram Data In/Out MMC/SPI Bus SanDisk Interface SanDisk Single Chip Flash Cards Controller Control SanDisk MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard © 2005 SanDisk Corporation 1-1 03/22/05 Chapter 1 – Introduction Revision 1.3 MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard Product Manual 1.2 Features The SanDisk MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard features include: ►MultiMediaCard Protocol compatible ►SPI Mode supported ►Targeted for portable and stationary applications ►Voltage range Basic communication: 2.7 to 3.6 V Memory access: 2.7 to 3.6 V ►Maximum data rate with up to 10 cards ►Correction of memory field errors ►Built-in write protection features (permanent and temporary) ►Variable clock rate 0 - 20 Mhz ►Multiple cards stackable on a single physical bus 1.3 Document Scope This document describes the key features and specifications of the SanDisk MultiMediaCard (full-size) and RS-MultiMediaCard (reduced-size), as well as the information required to interface this product to a host system. Retail card specifications are not covered in this manual. 1.4 Product Models The SanDisk MultiMediaCard and RS-MultiMediaCard is available in a variety of capacities as shown in Table 2-6, Chapter 2: Product Specifications. The MultiMediaCard is available in full-size and reduced-size (RS-MMC) form factors. 1.5 MultiMediaCard Standard MultiMediaCards and RS-MultiMediaCards are fully compatible with the MultiMediaCard standard specification listed below: The MultiMediaCard System Specification, Version 3.3 This specification may be obtained from: MultiMediaCard Association 19672 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 404 Cupertino, CA 95014-2465 USA Phone: 408-253-0441 Fax: 408-253-8811 Email: [email protected] http://www.mmca.org © 2005 SanDisk Corporation 1-2 03/22/05 Chapter 1 – Introduction Revision 1.3 MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard Product Manual 1.6 Functional Description The MultiMediaCard and RS-MultiMediaCard contain a high level, intelligent subsystem as shown by the block diagram in Figure 1-1. This intelligent (microprocessor) subsystem provides many capabilities not found in other types of memory cards. These capabilities include: • Host independence from details of erasing and programming flash memory • Sophisticated system for managing defects (analogous to systems found in magnetic disk drives) • Sophisticated system for error recovery including a powerful error correction code • Power management for low power operation 1.7 Flash-Independent Technology The 512-byte sector size of the MultiMediaCard and RS-MultiMediaCard is the same as that in an IDE magnetic disk drive. To write or read a sector (or multiple sectors), the host computer software simply issues a read or write command to the card. This command contains the address. The host software then waits for the command to complete. The host software does not get involved in the details of how the flash memory is erased, programmed or read. This is extremely important as flash devices are expected to get more and more complex in the future. Because the MultiMediaCard and RS-MultiMediaCard uses an intelligent on-board controller, the host system software will not require changing as new flash memory evolves. In other words, systems that support the SanDisk MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard today will be able to access future cards built with new flash technology without having to update or change host software. 1.8 Defect and Error Management The SanDisk MultiMediaCard and RS-MultiMediaCard contain a sophisticated defect and error management system. This system is analogous to the systems found in magnetic disk drives and in many cases offers enhancements. For example, disk drives do not typically perform a read after write to confirm the data is written correctly because of the performance penalty that would be incurred. MultiMediaCards and RS-MultiMediaCards do a read after write under margin conditions to verify that the data is written correctly. In the rare case that a bit is found to be defective, the cards replace it with a spare bit within the sector header. If necessary, the card will replace the entire sector with a spare sector. This is completely transparent to the host and does not consume any user data space. The card’s soft error rate specification is much better than the magnetic disk drive specification. In the extremely rare case a read error does occur, a SanDisk MultiMediaCard/RS-MultiMediaCard possesses innovative algorithms to recover the data. This is similar to using retries on a disk drive but is much more sophisticated. The last line of defense is to employ a powerful ECC to correct the data. If ECC is used to recover data, defective bits are replaced with spare bits to ensure they do not cause any future problems. These defect and error