It was designed to compete with the Memory Stick, a DRM product that Sony had released the year before.

The card was derived from the MultiMediaCard (MMC) and provided digital rights management based on the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) standard and for the time, a high memory density. In 1999, SanDisk, Panasonic (Matsushita), and Toshiba agreed to develop and market the Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card. 10 Comparison to other flash memory formats.9 SD Express/UHS-II Verification Program (SVP).The SDA uses several trademarked logos owned and licensed by SD-3C to enforce compliance with its specifications and assure users of compatibility.

SDA today has about 1,000 member companies. The companies also formed the SD Association (SDA), a non-profit organization, in January 2000 to promote and create SD Card standards. The three companies formed SD-3C, LLC, a company that licenses and enforces intellectual property rights associated with SD memory cards and SD host and ancillary products. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDisk, Panasonic (Matsushita) and Toshiba as an improvement over MultiMediaCards (MMCs), and has become the industry standard. Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. Portable devices, such as digital cameras and mobile phones (including most smartphones)

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