The Secure Digital Association (SDA), an international consortium of more than 280 companies, today announced that member Palm, Inc. has unveiled the Palm(TM) Bluetooth Card, one of the first products to support the SDIO (Secure Digital Input/Output) technology standard.

The Palm Bluetooth Card will let mobile phones, laptops, printers, handheld computers and other devices talk to each other using the Bluetooth wireless connectivity standard. Based on SDIO technology, the Palm Bluetooth Card is a little larger than the size of a postage stamp. The broad interoperability of SD and the SDIO standard ensures that the Palm Bluetooth Card, with the correct drivers, will work in any SD capable device.

``The Palm Bluetooth Card will change the way people communicate with one another, distribute information and even play interactive computer games,'' said Ray Creech, Secure Digital Association President. ``It is a powerful indication of the potential of SD and the SDIO standard to drive mobility to new levels.''

With the Palm Bluetooth Card, devices within a 10 meter (30 foot) range can communicate quickly and securely. The card can be inserted into Palm handhelds that have the SD/MultiMediaCard expansion slot, including the Palm m500 and m505 series handhelds. The card is being announced today at the Bluetooth Congress 2001 and is scheduled to be available by the end of the year for approximately $150 (U.S.).

Founded to set standards for the SD Memory Card technology, the SDA has been working since January 2000 to promote the technology's wide acceptance in digital appliances. Membership has grown over 50 percent in the past seven months, underscoring the momentum of market acceptance and of leading companies integrating the SD technology into their devices.

SD Memory Card technology is non-volatile, meaning it does not require power to retain the information stored on it. Since it has no moving parts, it will not skip or break down. It is extremely electrostatic discharge resistant and can quickly and securely transfer data.

The Secure Digital Memory Card media format was introduced in August 1999 by SanDisk Corp. (Nasdaq: SNDK - news), Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC - news), best known by its Panasonic brand name. The stamp-size flash memory card offers a high-level of copyright protection, high-density memory capacity and Input/Output capabilities. The association expects that, starting this year, the card will be widely adopted and used in numerous consumer electronics products, including Internet music players, cellular phones, digital cameras, handheld computers and camcorders. For more information on the SDA visit www.sdcard.org.

SOURCE: Secure Digital Association