There are a lot of storage options out there, don't you think? Be it flash or mechanical storage, the world is currently flooded with storage options of all shapes, sizes, designs and with logos from almost every major company in the world. And some are more proprietary than others. Talking about proprietary, one of the best known firms to rely on proprietary technology despite the trend that the world is following is Sony.

You have probably noticed that most of its devices use their own proprietary flash memory unit, namely the Memory Stick. Well, the memory stick has received a huge upgrade, my friends.

Sony has taken the 32GB-sized sticks, multiplied them by 60 and come up with the new 2TB capacity Memory Stick XC format series. The XC Series features the same form factors as the PRO series, supports MagicGate content protection technology and Access Control function.

While the PRO series uses FAT12/16/32 file system, the XC series employs exFAT in order to manage the files that it holds. The Memory Stick XC Duo will feature 10 pins, 15Mbps or 32Mbps guaranteed read/write speed and has a maximum clock frequency of 40MHz. The XC Micro has 11pins, 2TB in size and 15Mbps guaranteed read/write speed. Both sticks have a 4-bit parallel and serial interface.

The fastest of the bunch are the XC-HG Duo and XC-HG Micro, one with 14 pins while the other features 20. Though they are both 2TB in size, they have a 4-bit/8-bit Parallel Interface and Serial Interface and a 2048 byte maximum data transfer unit, whereas the XC Duo and XC Micro had 512. Of course, protection is offered by MagiGate in all four cases.


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