Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) today announced the industry's first 64- and 32-Mbyte Secure 
MultiMediaCard(TM)*1 products as flash cards for storing digital content that requires 
content protection, for music distribution and similar applications. Sample shipment 
of the 64-Mbyte HB288064SM1 will start from January 2001 in Japan, and sample shipment 
of the 32-Mbyte HB288032SM1 will start from November 2000 in Japan.

These products were adopted as a "Keitaide-Music MultiMediaCard" by "Keitaide-Music"*2  
music distribution system, which is based on the UDAC-MB*3 general-purpose content 
protection technology jointly developed by SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, 
and Hitachi, Ltd., and are compatible with stringent security and user-friendly legal 
copying and legal playback. 

Since the 64-Mbyte card can store one hour of music data and the 32-Mbyte card can 
store 30 minutes of music data when popular compression technology such as MP3 
(MPEG-1/Audio Layer3) is used, in conjunction with Hitachi's current 16-Mbyte product, 
these products support a wide range of recording times.

< Background >
The "Keitaide-Music" mobile phone and PHS music distribution system is based on UDAC-MB, 
which prevents illegal copying. In addition to responding to the needs for large-capacity 
Secure MultiMediaCards that can support longer recording times in preparation for 
full-scale operation of this music distribution service, such services are expected to 
expand to include services other than music services that require content protection, 
such as image data, electronic documents, and educational material distribution services. 
Hitachi is now releasing 64- and 32-Mbyte Secure MultiMediaCards as flash cards that 
can safely record large amounts of these types of digital data.

 
These products contain flash memory and a controller in a single chip and realize 
content protection function in hardware.  The flash memory uses a 0.25 µm 256-Mbit 
(32-Mbyte) AND-type flash memory that adopts Multi-Level Cell technology*4 for 
miniaturization.  The controller employs a Hitachi SuperH(TM*5 RISC microcontroller 
as the CPU core and implements high-level encoding and decoding operations. 
The 64-Mbyte product takes advantage of Hitachi's advanced mounting technology to 
combine the above single chip with a 256-Mbit AND flash memory. Thus this product 
achieves its large memory capacity by combining two chips in the same package.

These products provide the following main features.
(1) Built-in high degree of security functions

A high degree of security is achieved, based on the UDAC-MB system.  The card itself 
has encryption/decryption functions, and is also provided with a TRM area*6 that 
allows license keys*7, etc., used in encryption/decryption to be stored in a secure 
area within the card.  

The security level required by music distribution systems is achieved by porting 
a content protection related command set*8 software.

 (2) Compatibility with standard MultiMediaCards(TM)

These new cards are not only functionally compatible with the earlier MultiMediaCard  
, they also adopt exactly the same external dimensions, including the thickness, as 
the earlier cards, and thus maintain upwards compatibility with those cards. 
This means that these Secure MultiMediaCards can be used not only with new equipment 
that requires content protection, but also with existing MultiMediaCard equipment. 
As with the earlier MultiMediaCard  , these new cards feature a data readout rate of 
14 Mbits/sec, and a write speed of 3 Mbits/sec, which are the highest in the industry. 
Furthermore, they achieve low-voltage operation at 2.7 to 3.6 V. They have 7 pins, 
and the pin arrangement is identical to that of the earlier MultiMediaCard

The specifications of these Hitachi Secure MultiMediaCards have been adopted as 
an application note by the MultiMediaCard Association (MMCA) *9, and the application 
note can be downloaded from the MMCA home page. 

Both of these new cards, the 64-and 32-Mbyte cards are available in the same seven 
colors as the 16-Mbyte card: silver, beige, orange, pink, blue, white, and purple.
Future developments in this area will include cards with even larger capacities 
such as 128-Mbyte.

Notes:   1.Seure MultiMediaCard)(TM) is a generic name for MultiMediaCard featured 
           security function such as content protection.    
           MultiMediaCard(TM) is a trademark of Infineon Technologies AG of Germany.

         2.Keitaide-Music: A technical specification for a system that distributes music 
           to mobile and PHS phones, developed jointly by SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., 
           Hitachi, Ltd., and Fujitsu Limited.  The "Keitaide-Music" standard is based 
           on the UDAC-MB general-purpose content protection technology developed by 
           the three companies, and comprises security guidelines, a protocol 
           specification, a Secure MultiMediaCard specification, and a download and 
           playback system specification.
      
         3.UDAC-MB (Universal Distribution with Access Control - Media Base): 
           A content protection technology that implements user-friendly legal copying 
           and legal playback when contents are distributed to secure MultiMediaCards, 
           etc., and exchanged between users.

         4.Multi-Level Cell technology: A technology that is effective in reducing chip 
           size, and is suitable for future large-capacity flash memories.  In contrast 
           to the two threshold levels (0 and 1) of normal memory, four threshold levels 
           (00, 01, 10, and 11) are used, enabling one cell to do the work of two cells.

         5.SuperH(TM) is a trademark of Hitachi, Ltd.

         6.TRM (Tamper Resistant Module)area:  Tamper resistant technology physically and 
           logically prevents internal analysis of, or tampering with, a semiconductor 
           chip.  A tough and highly viscous coating may be applied to the inside of the 
           chip, so that if the surface is peeled off, the internal circuitry will be 
           totally destroyed, for example, or dummy wiring may be used.  A TRM is a silicon
           area, or card area, formed or configured using this technology.

         7.License key: Information whereby a key for unlocking encrypted contents is 
           encrypted with a public key, etc., unique to the medium to which distribution 
           is performed.  The license key is purchased via a network, etc., or recorded 
           in a Secure MultiMediaCard by legal transfer.  In playback, encrypted contents 
           can only be decrypted after secure transfer to a legal decode chip.

         8.Content protection related command set: An encryption related command set 
           provided exclusively for Secure MultiMediaCards for content protection.  
           Instructions such as ENCRYPT and DECRYPT are included.

         9.MultiMediaCard Association: A standardization group for MultiMediaCards and 
           proposed  Secure MultiMediaCards, the world's smallest class of currently 
           available flash cards.  The MultiMediaCard Association currently has 
           approximately 80 member companies.
 
< Typical Applications >

All kinds of personal devices that handle digital information requiring content 
protection Mobile phones with music download/playback functions, portable music 
players, toys, game machines, and similar portable entertainment products
Digital video cameras, digital still cameras, and similar portable imaging systems
Portable information devices such as palm-size PCs, electronic organizers, and so on.
Portable communication products such as smart phones and pagers