3D Memory Card Stores Data For 100 Years

Here’s a novel concept. SanDisk is saying they’re going to release a new type of memory card to replace current flash cards used in digital cameras. The new card, called  “3D memory” are none editable, read only memory cards that are designed to be cheap and last for a hundred years. I think this is a great concept, but the price will key to it’s success, if it’s cheap enough then I can see storing tons of memory cards full of photos in a shoebox vs. having to download them off my current compact flash card and trasnfering them to a hard drive to be backed up, etc.

Greg Rhine, who heads SanDisk’s consumer operations, said that SanDisk will create a new product category in the middle of the year: a read-only memory card that will be designed as a cheap archival product. Rhine did not say what technology the cards would use; flash inherently is both a read and write technology.

Company executives said that the card, which uses “3D memory,” is currently being tested in a pilot program with a single retailer. The cards, once full, would not be editable, nor would the data be able to be deleted. The card would store data for 100 years. Rhine called the card “the new digital film”.

“It eliminates the computer from the equation,” Rhine said. “It doesn’t need the computer for usage. You shoot it once, develop it, and then store it. It’s permanently stored on the card, and not rewriteable.”

Rhine said the card is favored by retailers such as Walgreen’s or Wal-Mart, which has lost digital-photo printing business to home printers over the past years.