Memory on the move

The author describes how, competing for the US $ 11 billion portable electronic device memory market are several venerable but revitalized memory systems as well as new storage technologies: flash memory cards; PC memory cards; and small disk drives. Flashers, a relatively young technology contain one or more nonvolatile solid-state memory chips. They have no moving parts and retain data in the absence of power. Like these, but an industry unto itself, is the PC Card; now almost 10 years old, the business-card-sized memory and application device is heavily used to add functions to mobile computers. The spinners are a completely upgraded group of rotating disk drive systems based on both magnetic and optical technologies