IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference Copyright 1998, IS&T

Image Storage Technologies and System

Implications for Digital Cameras
Thomas Yeh and Shyam Venkataraman
Questra Consulting
300 Linden Oaks, Suite 100, Rochester NY 14625
the consumers both for temporary and long term imaging
Abstract storage. Furthermore, rotating storage media such as
magnetic and magneto-optical disks have been miniaturized
The storage of digital image, both for short and long term, is sufficiently to be a viable alternative to flash. The cost-
becoming a hot topic of discussion amongst digital density ratio of the rotating media are substantially lower
photography enthusiasts. With the introduction of a variety compared to solid-state media. The issues however are
of affordable mega-pixel cameras, OEM’s and consumers power, reliability and cost for the disk drives needed to
alike are quickly realizing that the storage solution can be read/write the rotating disk media.
both an enabler and an impediment to adoption of digital Typical size of an uncompressed image data captured
cameras by the masses. by mega-pixel image sensor after color interpolation is
greater than three megabytes (MB). To capture a set of 24
This paper investigates the current and future removable pictures with an image size of 3 MB each and an average
storage technologies that could be the solution for both in- lossless compression ratio of 2:1, it would require 36 MB of
camera usage and long term archival. The technologies
storage. At $4 per MB, the cost for that amount of flash
range from flash memory, magnetic, magneto-optical and
optical. Each technology is characterized and compared in memory is around $144. According to a survey conducted
1
terms of technical attributes such as storage capacity, by Photo Marketing Association (PMA), an average of 7.6
absolute and relative cost, read and write performance, rolls of color film per household was used by US
power consumption, form factor and reliability. Other households in 1996. If the same images were stored on flash
factors such as broader application appeal, market support, memory, it would cost in the range of $1092 per year in
retail presence and standardization will also be explored flash memory alone for 182 images, assuming 1.5MB per
since these factors can dramatically influence adoption. Our picture. Even before factoring in OEM mark ups and retail
investigation will include system level considerations, such margins, we can arrive at the conclusion that the cost of
as added firmware or PC software and the compatibility flash is not consistent with driving the adoption of digital
with multimedia data types, such as video, still image and cameras into mass market in the short term.
audio.
Presently almost all consumer class cameras use lossy
Keywords: image storage, digital camera, system issues, compression such as JPEG to reduce the memory required
storage media per image. The image data, after color interpolation and
image enhancement, is compressed to a finished file and
written to the storage media. The compression process is a
Introduction
necessary compromise to control the cost of storage from
becoming excessive for consumer cameras. However
Currently the cost of digital cameras is considerably greater compression adds complexity and implementation cost to
than its silver halide (film) counterpart. However the trend the camera, and compromises image quality which detracts
is toward an affordable mega-pixel camera with image from the original intent of moving to mega-pixel sensors. If
quality and ease of use that rivals or exceeds that of film the cost of storage is sufficiently low, and if the storage
cameras. One critical component that could accelerate or media can also freely interoperate between cameras, PCs
impede the acceptance of digital camera is a storage and peripherals, there is no need for compression (or at least
technology that could support the usage model compelling lossy compression), for cameras!
for mass consumers. Currently solid state flash memory is Intel has proposed an alternative partitioning where the
the most popular storage media being designed into digital image data is lossless compressed in raw format for in-
cameras. However even with the recent drastic price camera storage. The host PC is responsible to decompress
decrease, it is uncertain whether the cost of flash component and finish the processing to complete the file. Albeit this
will reach a sufficiently low price point to be considered by architecture effectively reduces the amount of storage

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IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference Copyright 1998, IS&T

needed per image, it is not a direct solution for the storage 60% year to year improvement. Comparatively during the
problem. same eight year period, dollar per Mbyte for flash memories
has been averaging around 40% year to year improvement.
If it were determined only on the basis of the cost per Mbyte
In-camera storage options the decision would have been simple. Obviously other
factors such as size, weight and power are equally if not
considered more important for digital camera use than
The removable storage media being designed into digital
absolute lowest cost per Mbyte. However with the need for
cameras fall into one of the following categories – solid-
higher and higher capacities, it is a battle to see if flash
state miniature flash memory cards, magnetic disks and
memory could accelerate the downward cost trend even
magneto-optical disks. The different types of flash memory
more, or if the rotating magnetic storage systems could be
cards include CompactFlash card, SmartMedia card and
significantly miniaturized and reduce the power needed to
Miniature card. For the purpose of comparison we will also
operate.
evaluate two alternatives to flash cards – Click™ and
Minidisc.
Removable miniature flash cards
Facing with many available and viable storage media
technologies, and without one with a clear overwhelming The three miniature flash cards are similar in size and offers
advantage in all of the important attributes for digital adapter cards for the PC using the PC-Card slots. The major
cameras, an OEM is faced with a difficult choice. Yes, there differences are in the type of flash component used in the
is a market share leader at the moment but could that card, and in the partitioning of control functions between
position be sustained over long term? Are we facing with hardware and software necessary to support the cards. A
the Beta/VHS scenario all over again where the Beta format snap shot cost for the three cards in different commercially
also had an early market share lead. Furthermore, what will available capacities are listed in Figures 1 to 3.
be the usage model for such storage media when digital
camera goes into mass adoption? Are we looking at a video CompactFlash is the only flash card that contains an on-
tape model where the consumers will use the removable board microcontroller. This on-board 32-bit controller
media for both temporary and long term storage? Or handles all management of the flash components and
alternatively will this be more analogous to a camcorder provides a standard ATA interface to the host of the card.
battery model where a consumer might have a single spare The advantage of this partitioning is that the card will
to increase the usage duration? Finally could there even be appear as an ATA disk drive for the camera as well as the
the possibility of an electronic film model where the PC host. The on-board microcontroller isolates the flash
removable storage is actually a consumable item? component from the interface so the card can use different
type of flash memories. In practice NAND and AND are the
Solid state versus rotating media two types that have been implemented. The two main
disadvantages are cost of the microcontroller (and
Flash memory is one of the fastest growing segments of the supporting devices), and not being able to manage in-
semiconductor market. With the steep drop in the price of camera flash memory and the CompactFlash card as an
DRAM in the last two years, many manufacturers have unified memory resource. The card uses a 50 pins
shifted production over to flash in the hope to participate in male/female connector system for connection.
a more lucrative market. This additional influx of capacity
has instead triggered a precipitous drop in the price of flash The Miniature card contains memory only. The interface,
memories. Nonetheless the storage density of flash on a per which consist of a 16-bit data bus, 25-bit address bus and
chip basis is catching up with DRAM, with improvements control signals, will support a variety of different memories
in write time, write cycle, and single supply operation. All including flash, ROM, and DRAM. It requires NOR type
of this translates to lower cost and increased capacity of flash when used as flash cards. The card also relies on an
miniature flash cards for markets such as mobile computing, elastomeric connector system to mate 60 pins which has
portable communication devices, and digital camera. been the source of much debate about its reliability. The
main advantage of the Miniature card is the direct memory
Rotating magnetic disk for data storage has been in use for bus interface which allows any in-camera memory and the
decades. With the advent of personal computing the cost- flash card to be treated as an unified memory resource,
density curve of both fixed-disk and removable disk drives including executing code from the card. However this
has been improving at a rate even more aggressive than interface becomes a disadvantage when interfacing with the
semiconductors’ Moore’s law. On a dollar per Mbyte basis PC since an additional layer of software is needed on the PC
the trend for the last eight years has been averaging at over to read/write the card.

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SmartMedia also contains memory only. It is essentially an importance for OEMs deciding on which media type to use.
NAND flash die in a plastic package with 22 leads brought Typically it is the capacity, cost of integration, cost of
out to two rows of contact pads. Originally each media and PC interoperability that are weighted more
SmartMedia card can only accommodate a single flash die heavily than other factors when deciding within formats of
which limits the capacity of the card. However recently two the same technology (e.g. which flash card to use?). When
dies has been packaged into a single card to increase the deciding between technology categories (e.g. rotating
capacity of the card. The main advantage of SmartMedia is magnetic disk versus solid state flash memory) all of the
that it should be the lowest cost card amongst the three factors comes into play and are weighted depending on the
formats. The disadvantages are the limited capacity of the design focus of the camera.
card, and the interface issue similar to the Miniature card.
The SmartMedia cards are the thinnest and lightest of the
Software ease of use three flash formats. It also has the potential for being the
lowest cost due to its simplicity of packaging and contact
CompactFlash card is the easiest to interface from a design. However the mechanical design of the card also has
software perspective. It is a basic ATA/IDE interface of several negative aspects. The 3V and 5V versions of
Ports and Read/Write Registers. The flash media is SmartMedia cards by design are not physically compatible
completely managed by the microcontroller inside the flash and cannot be used interchangeably. Then there is the
card, including error detection and correction. The interface electrical contact design of the card requiring a protection
is readily compatible to the PC-Card systems and will mechanism during card insertion and removal to prevent the
operate as a PC hard drive through card and socket services. shorting of the contacts from damaging the card. The major
disadvantage of SmartMedia is that its maximum capacity is
In contrast, Minicard requires the most complex software limited to what can be provided by one or two NAND flash
amongst the flash cards. A software layer referred to as the dies. In comparison the other two formats can accommodate
Flash Translation Layer (FTL) running in-camera or on the many more dies and therefore can have higher capacity
PC host does the management of the flash memories. cards than SmartMedia.
Simplistically speaking, the FTL converts the linear array of
64KB blocks of the NOR flash memory into a series of 512 The CompactFlash cards are the easiest to integrate into
byte sectors of a PC hard drive, converts the ATA track, cameras and interface with PCs. It also has the potential for
sector and head references, and management of the flash supporting the highest write speed. Several CompactFlash
memory such as device leveling and garbage collection. cards on the market today already integrate buffers to
Minicard has no explicit support of error detection and increase the effective write speed of the card. The 528
correction. MByte maximum address space supported by the
CompactFlash card is also higher than the other two
Since SmartMedia is little more than NAND flash dies formats. The major disadvantage of CompactFlash is the
packaged in a plastic wrapper, the software/hardware additional internal components besides the flash memories
partitioning can be more flexibly defined. The NAND flash that add cost to the card. This “overhead” cost as a
device has a serial architecture with register level interfaces, percentage of the overall cost of the card will diminish as
a file storage specification with configuration registers and capacity increases. However the additional cost factor for
data read/write registers. The support of error detection and CompactFlash will likely prevent it from being the lowest
correction is optional. Dedicated controllers can be used cards compared to the other two formats, even at a limited
inside the camera and inside the PC-Card adapter to provide capacity.
an ATA interface. Alternatively the in-camera software
similar to FTL can manage the NAND flash memory while The Miniature card has the benefit of being able to be
the controller inside the PC-Card provide the ATA interface integrated with other in-camera memories, including
to the host. Toshiba is also offering a floppy disk adapter additional flash memories. This mean it is easier to design a
and PC driver software to provide PC connectivity. digital camera with Miniature card that could be used
without a flash card installed relying on in-camera flash for
storage. The ability to be able to execute code directly from
Comparisons
the card opens the possibilities of using the card to
distribute additional application software for in-camera use.
Factors that differentiate the various storage media for
The design of the Miniature card should be very cost
camera use are size, weight, capacity, power consumption,
competitive against the SmartMedia cards. However there
interoperability with PC, cost of media, cost of integration,
are two major inconvenient factors in using the Miniature
data transfer speed, usability for long term storage, and
card. First is the additional FTL software that must be
lifetime reliability. Not all of these factors are of equal
integrated into the firmware of the camera to manage the

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IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference Copyright 1998, IS&T

flash memories and to write to the card using PC format. read time the laser beam, used in a lower power mode, is
The second is the mechanical impact of the card to design reflected off the disk surface. The polarization of the laser
of the camera. The elastomeric connector system requires a light due to the Kerr effect will change depending on the
more complex design to insert the card compared to the magnetized state of the particles in the magnetic layer. The
other two formats. advantages of the MD system are relative low cost of the
media (between $5 and $10), higher storage capacity
Referring to the information summarized in Table 1, we can compared to flash cards and Click™ disks, and the
conclude that no one format is advantaged in all of the robustness of the MD disks against handling, exposure to
important attributes. If we rank the three card formats both magnetic field, and can retain data for over 30 years without
objectively and subjectively, tables similar to Table 2 can be degradation. The disadvantages of MD are the size, weight
filled out. In most areas the advantage is actually quite and power consumption of the drive and read/write system.
marginal, except for the cost of the card, and the highest Minidisc does not use or have an adapter for IDE/ATA/PC-
capacity of current products. We have observed these are Card interface, which means connectivity with PC desktop
the two areas that frequently become the decision factor in or laptop will be extremely difficult.
deciding between these three formats.
IBM recently announced a miniature hard drive technology
Alternative to removable flash cards call Microfile that could have significant application for
Click™ is a magnetic disk and drive system introduced by digital cameras, provided IBM decides to develop it into a
Iomega. The disk is approximately 2 inches in diameter and commercial product. Microfile is a complete hard drive
has the capacity of 40MB. The major benefit of the Click™ packaged into the type 2 Compact Flash Association (CFA-
system is the price of the media. Iomega and their partners 2) format (36.4mmx42.8mmx5mm). IBM has reported two
will be selling the Click™ disks at less than $10 retail. The available capacities: 340MB and 170MB. The drive will be
drive is available in two versions, a version that can be electrically and logically compatible with the CFA-2
integrated into portable handheld devices such as a digital standard, and will be powered through the CFA-2
camera, and an external version for use as an accessory. The connector. According to IBM, Microfile is the result of 5
Click™ drive uses an IDE/ATAPI interface, which allows years of research which produced special motors, special
the drive to be easily integrated into products. The lubricant and miniatures designs. IBM is careful to mention
IDE/ATAPI interface also allows the drive to be used to that Microfile is still a technology and not yet an announced
“boot” or execute code directly from the disk in-cameras, or product. An attractive aspect of the IBM technology is that
used as spool or swap space by the in-camera software. This it is a complete self- contained system, with no mechanism
is an unique capability of the Click™ system and makes it that has to be integrated into the camera.
most versatile in terms of the type of applications it can
enable. However there is no getting around that a disk drive Long term storage options
requires more power to operate and takes up real estate
inside the camera when compared to flash cards. The size of If the cost of media is low enough, the same removable in-
the Click™ drive is about the size of a PC-Card (3.37in x camera storage devices could also be used for long term
2.13in x .26in) and weighs 2 ounces. The drive operates at storage. This is much like the usage model of the camcorder
3.3V and supports several power management modes when video tape, or even the silver halide film. A consumer could
not in use. The Click™ disks are rated at over 10 years of transfer the images from the in-camera memory to an
data retention without degradation. external storage medium for long term archival. In the
current usage model and mostly by default, the hard drive
Minidisc (MD) was introduced by Sony in 1992 as a on the PC serves as this long term storage archival.
consumer recordable music medium to replace cassettes or However as the number of digital images increases, we
CDs. Sony introduced another version of the Minidisc in believe consumers will look for an alternative long term
1993 for data storage. The MD disk is 64mm (2½ inch) in archival medium. The reason for this is quite simple and
diameter housed in a protective cartridge measuring 70mm analogous to the traditional photography – we place a great
x 67.5mm x 5mm, has data capacity of 140 MB, and uses a deal of value on the images and demands safe keeping for
magneto-optical process call Magnetic Field Modulation our treasured memories. Many of us are used to the need to
Direct Overwrite to record data. Physically the MD disk is backup our computer data in case of an unexpected demise
made of a magnetic layer, a dielectric layer and a reflective of the hard drive on our PC or laptop. We expect the same
layer sandwiched between a plastic substrate material and a will be the case for digital images.
protective layer. A laser is used to heat up a small area of
the magnetic layer to its Curie temperature (about 400 Could any of the previously discussed storage media be
degrees Fahrenheit). A magnetic head on the opposite side suitable for long term storage? The initial answer,
of the disk is used to write data into the heated area. During unsurprisingly, is it depends on the cost of the media. For

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long term archival and unlike in-camera storage, the media expect, as consumers become more educated, the cost of
is the main concern. The cost of the media has to be media will be factored into the buying decision along with
sufficiently cheap for consumers to be willing to treat it as a the price of the camera. The market share lead for in-camera
consumable item, much like the video tapes, silver-halide removable storage will be transition to, or be held by a
films and floppy disks. It is for this application the rotating storage system that can enable rather than being an obstacle
media system such as Click™ and Minidisc has an to lowering the price of adoption for the cameras.
advantage over flash memory cards. From a cost per bit
basis the rotating media are currently 10X to 40X cheaper It is likely that both magnetic and magneto-optic storage
than solid state flash. The cost and density improvement systems will play a more significant role for digital cameras
curve is also in favor of the rotating media. in the future. This will happen for both in-camera
removable storage and for long term archival storage. The
Several other storage systems are worth mentioning in the initial adoption will be in very high-resolution digital
usage model where the consumers will transfer the images cameras and cameras with substantial video capture and
from in-camera storage to a dedicated long term archival multimedia capability. The flash cards will continue to be
system. These systems were originally conceived for in wide use as magnetic and magneto-optical media gains in
entertainment and computer applications but could also be popularity. The usage of these different storage media will
deployed for long term storage of digital images: be clearly differentiated depending on the feature and
function of the camera. There is no need to standardize the
• CD-ROM (write-once) media if the interface and an imaging format can be
• CD-R (recordable) standardized instead.
• DVD-ROM (write-once)
• DVD-R (recordable) Interface and infrastructure
• DVD-RAM (read/write)
• Digital video cassette Today the digital photography segment of the industry is
• Magnetic removable disk drives still too immature for a single storage media to emerge as a
• Magneto-optical removable disk drives standard. There are logical arguments to support more than
• Magnetic fixed disk hard drives a single storage media standard going into the future. We
• Magnetic tape drives expect that all of the current media technologies will
continue to experience major advancements within the next
The tape drive systems are disadvantaged compared to disk- two to three years. The important factor for the industry is a
based systems due to the sequential access nature of the standard interface from which all of these advancements can
tape. From a shelf life and robustness perspective, the be accommodated, and for that standard to be widely
magneto-optical media should have an advantage over adopted by the supporting infrastructures. Today we have
magnetic disk or tape media. The relatively low data many storage solutions available to us on the PC because
transfer rate of the magneto-optical system compared to the the innovators can design to a known standard set of
magnetic fixed or removable disk system is not a serious interfaces available on the PC (e.g. IDE, ATA, SCSI). We
draw back for archival use. propose this is similarly needed for digital cameras as well
as other handheld computing devices that could benefit
A long lasting and broadly supported standard “format” is from cheap and high performance electronic storage.
also necessary for archival of digital images. After all, it
would be difficult to read a file from a 5.25” CPM The interface proposed by the CompactFlash Association
formatted diskette today even if the floppy disk retained the (CFA) has an early lead because it has value beyond being
original data without degradation. This is a cause for an interface to flash card. With the release of the type II
concern for some of the storage technology where a CFA specification, which remains compatible with the
“format” is also defined as part of the storage system. We original CFA interface, this is the only available miniature
expect that for long term archival of images, the interface that could also be used as an expansion connector
standardization of a “format” is a more critical for digital cameras. The memory-bus interface of the
consideration than the type of media that holds the image Miniature card has the potential but lacks the physical
data. attribute to be convenient as an expansion interface. For
SmartMedia the NAND memory interface and the extreme
Going into the future thinness of the card makes it all but impossible to use as an
expansion interface. Other interfaces on digital cameras are
The cost of storage media will become even more critical as either size disadvantaged, or can only be suitably used as a
the price of the digital camera drops below $300 for a high communication channel.
quality mega-pixel model within the next 2 years. We

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Conclusion

If a standard interface is broadly accepted within the

developing digital photography infrastructure, the question
of which storage media to use becomes much less
significant. A standard interface rather than a standard media
type will also have the benefit of concentrating the
development spending of the industry. Unlike traditional
photography, the digital photography infrastructure includes
interoperability issues with the computing and
entertainment. It is important to note that as the
photographic industry transitions to digital, the innovation
and leadership could also be coming from the computing
and entertainment companies. Looking towards the future
of digital camera storage technology we can predict one
trend with certainty – there are much more interesting
developments to come.

References

1. 1996-1997 Digital Imaging Industry trends report,

Photo Marketing Association International, November
1997.

2. ISO/TC42-DIS 12234-1, Photography – Electronic still

picture cameras, “Removable memory, part 1: Basic
removable memory reference model”, May 1997.

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Attributes Advantaged
Size SmartMedia
Weight SmartMedia
Capacity of current products CompactFlash
Power consumption SmartMedia
Ease of use CompactFlash
Media cost SmartMedia
Integration cost (in-camera) CompactFlash
Integration with in-camera memory Miniature Card
Data transfer speed CompactFlash
Reliability CompactFlash
3V/5V interoperability Miniature Card
Table 1

Compact Flash Miniature Card SmartMedia MiniDisc clik!

Size 36.4mmx42.8mm 38mmx33mm 45mmx37mm 68mmx72mmx5 3.37inx2.126in
x3.3mm x3.5mm x0.76mm mm x0.256in
Weight (g) 11.4 9 1.8 10
Capacity (MB) 2 to 48 2 to 64 1 to 8 140 40
Component type NOR,[Link],AND NOR NAND Magneto-optical Magnetic
Practical Write Speed 130 97 470 150 500
Min.(KB/sec)
Practical Write Speed 400 220 730 1000
Max.(KB/sec)
Read power (watts) 0.135/0.375 0.033/0.2 0.075
Write power (watts) 0.225/0.45 0.1056/0.2 0.2
Controller built-in in-host in-reader
Table 2

SmartMedia/SSFDC

70
60
Cost (in dollars)

50
40 SSFDC(3.3)
30 SSFDC(5V)
20
10
0
2 4 6 8
Capacity (in MB)

Figure 1

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IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference IS&T’s 1998 PICS Conference Copyright 1998, IS&T

Compact Flash

300
250
Cost (in dollars)

200
150
100
50
0
2 4 6 8 12 16 24 32
Capacity (in MB)

Figure 2

Miniature Card

160
140
Cost (in dollars)

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2 4
Capacity (in MB)

Figure 3

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