Lexar Media, Inc. has announced a new USB card shape that's only 12 millimeters wide, 4.5 mm high, and 31.75 mm long. Designed to work with a variety of electronic devices, the USB FlashCard will be the first product based on this new shape and will offer plug-and-play connectivity with all modern operating systems.

"Lexar's USB FlashCard will offer unparalleled ease of use by leveraging the pervasive USB interface," said Petro Estakhri, the company's chief technology officer, in a state-ment.

The company plans to introduce two versions in 2005: a Full-Speed USB version in 16MB, 32MB, and 64MB capacities, and a Hi-Speed USB version in 64MB, 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB capacities, with a high-performance 60MB/second interface speed.

The new shape, based on the USB Type A connector, is being proposed as an open and free industry standard. "Our intent is to leverage the open standards to create technology that is feature-rich in terms of security, provides an easy interface, and is built on an envi-ronmental design that meets general standards for all of today's devices," Estakhri added.

Lexar is working with connector manufacturers to offer an extended USB Type A socket so that this new shape can be used in electronic devices and mobile applications such as digital cameras and PDAs.

"USB flash drives have seen a tremendous success as external flash-based storage devices and are now the preferred medium of choice for a wide range of professional and con-sumer users for transferring data," said Steffen Hellmold, general manager of OEM prod-ucts at Lexar. "This new form factor enables the use of USB flash drives beyond comput-ing applications, realizing the dream of connecting the worlds of computing, consumer and mobile apps through a universal USB FlashCard."