Memory stick

Sandisk PRO Duo Memory Stick

The Memory Stick is a Sony proprietary format. It is declined in many versions such as the Original Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO High Speed, Memory Stick PRO Duo High Speed and Memory Stick Micro (M2).

Note that only the Duo format is compatible with the PSP. The M2 can also be used via the use of a Duo sized adaptator.

Specification

The Memory Stick PRO Duo is certainly the most used format in PSP usage. It run at a 40 Hz speed over a 4 Bit bus. It's transfer speed is around 20 MB/s. It is mostly formatted under a FAT file system, between 32 MB and 2 GB. At 4 GB, the file system move to FAT32.

Size

• Memory Stick PRO Duo: 31.0 mm (W) × 20.0 mm (H) × 1.6 mm (D)

Weight: 2 grams

• Memory Stick PRO Micro: 15.0 mm (H) × 12.5 mm (W) × 1.2 mm (D)

Weight: 1 gram

Speed

Memory Stick Standard:

• Maximum write speed: 14.4 Mbit/s (1.8 MB/s)
• Maximum read speed: 19.6 Mbit/s (2.5 MB/s)

Memory Stick PRO Duo:

• Transfer: 159 Mbit/s (20 MB/s)
• Minimum write speed: 15 Mbit/s
• Maximum write speed: 80 Mbit/s (High Speed PRO Duo)

Memory Stick PRO-HG: (still in project)

• Transfer: 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s)
• Minimum write speed: 120 Mbit/s
• Maximum write speed: 240 Mbit/s

Magicgate

MagicGate is a copy-protection technology introduced by Sony in 1999 as part of the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). It works by encrypting the content on the device and using MagicGate chips in both the storage device and the reader to enforce control over how files are copied.

All Memory Stick Duo cards equipped with MagicGate can be identified by a notch located on the rear end of the card.

File Structure

   PSP
       GAME
           UPDATE 
       MUSIC
       PHOTO
       SAVEDATA 
   MP_ROOT
       100MNV01 
   DCIM
       101MSDCF 
   MEMSTICK.IND
   MSTK_PRO.IND
   HIFI
   CONTROL
       PACKAGES
           PKGxxxxx 

Memory Stick Pinout

• http://pinouts.ru/Memory/memorysrick_pinout.shtml

Pin	Signal	Description
1	VSS	Vss
2	BS	Bus state signal
3	DATA1	Data1 Parallel / NC Serial
4	SDIO/DATA0	Data0 Parallel / Data Serial
5	DATA2	Data2 Parallel / NC Serial
6	INS	Stick detect (connected to VSS)
7	DATA3	Data3 Parallel / NC Serial
8	SCLK	Clock signal
9	VCC	Vcc (2,7V - 3,6V)
10	VSS	Vss

Notes:

1. Serial interface protocol to transfer data on three signal lines: SCLK, BS, SDIO.
2. Parallel interface protocol to transfer data on six signal lines: SCLK, BS, DATA [3:0].

Memory Stick M2

• http://pinoutsguide.com/Memory/memoty_stick_m2_pinout.shtml

Pin	Signal	Description
1	BS
2	DATA1
3	DATA0
4	DATA2
5	INS
6	DATA3
7	SCLK
8	VCC
9	VSS
10	Reserved
11	Reserved

Memory Stick capacity

The PRO Duo capacity could technically be raise up to 32 Gb. Actually the commercialized Memory Stick capacity varies between 32 Mb and 16 Gb since it has been released on sales by March 2008[1].

The Memory Stick is still an expensive memory, compared to the SD card. As an example a 2 GB MS cost $54.99 (USD) as the 2 GB SD is only $ 39.99 (USD) (February 2008) almost 40 % more expensive for the MS. Note that both memory can be find on Sandisk's homepage

Note that in order to make a Magic Memory Stick, you need to have a 256 or 512 MB, 1, 2 or 4 GB Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo. The 32, 64, 128 MB and 8 GB, won't work instead as all Fake Memory Stick

Official Memory Stick Manufacturer and Card

Memory Stick is a Trademark exploited and developed by Sony but also produced by other manufacturer such as Sandisk or Lexar.

Here is a list for all PSP compatible Memory Stick. Because the standard Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO is too large to fit the PSP, you won't find any of these here, but you should know that it does exist. The Micro's M2 Memory Stick can be used instead of PRO Duo Memory Stick but required an adaptator.

You can look if your's is listed over here. But take care, the fact that it is don't guaranteed it is genuine. To insure, you can have a look to the fake memory stick article. If your Memory Stick isn't listed, don't panic, it don't mean it's a fake. Maybe it is a brand new card or a rare card who haven't been added to this list. After insure you that it does exist by having a look on How to detect Fake Memory Stick you can add it to the list below.

Sony

Memory Stick Duo™ Series

Memory Stick Duo™ 32 MB PSP-M32 (From PSP Value Pack)

Memory Stick Duo™ 32 MB MSHM32A

Memory Stick Duo™ 64 MB MSHM64A

Memory Stick Duo™ 128 MB MSHM128A

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ Series

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 256 MB MSXM256S

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 512 MB MSXM512SX

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 1 GB MSXM1GS

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 2 GB MSXM2GS

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 2 GB Entertainment Pack MSXM2GSEP3

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 4 GB MSXM4GS

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 4 GB Entertainment Pack MSXM4GSEP3'

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 8 GB MSXM8GS

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ Mark2 Series

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 16 GB MSMT16G

Memory Stick PRO Duo High Speed™ Series

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ High Speed 2 GB MSXM2GNX

Memory Stick PRO Duo™ High Speed 1 GB MSXM1GNX

Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™ Series

Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™ 1 GB MSEX1G

Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™ 2 GB MSEX2G

Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™ 4 GB MSEX4G

Memory Stick Micro™

Memory Stick Micro™ 256 MB MSA256A

Memory Stick Micro™ 512 MB MSA512A

Memory Stick Micro™ 1 GB MSA1GA

Memory Stick Micro™ 2 GB MBMSA2GA

Memory Stick Micro™ 512 MB MSA512D

Memory Stick Micro™ 1 GB MSA1GD

Memory Stick Micro™ 2 GB MSA2GD

Memory Stick Micro™ 4 GB MSA4GD

Sandisk

SanDisk Standard Memory Stick PRO Duo™

SanDisk Mobile Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 256 MB SDMSPD-256-A10M

SanDisk Mobile Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 512 MB SDMSPD-512-A10M

SanDisk Mobile Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 1 GB SDMSPD-1024-A10M

SanDisk Mobile Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 2 GB SDMSPD-2048-A10M

SanDisk Mobile Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 4 GB SDMSPD-4096-A10M

SanDisk Ultra® II Memory Stick PRO Duo™

SanDisk Ultra® II Memory Stick PRO™ Duo 512 MB SDMSPDH-512-901

SanDisk Ultra® II Memory Stick PRO™ Duo 1 GB SDMSPDH-1024-901

SanDisk Ultra® II Memory Stick PRO™ Duo 2 GB SDMSPDH-2048-901

SanDisk Ultra® II Memory Stick PRO™ Duo 4 GB SDMSPDH-4096-901

SanDisk Ultra® II Memory Stick PRO™ Duo 8 GB SDMSPDH-8192

SanDisk Extreme® III Memory Stick PRO Duo™

SanDisk Extreme® III MS PRO Duo 1 GB SDMSPDX3-1024-901

SanDisk Extreme® III MS PRO Duo 2 GB SDMSPDX3-2048-901

SanDisk Extreme® III MS PRO Duo 4 GB SDMSPDX3-4096-901

SanDisk Gaming Memory Stick PRO Duo™

SanDisk Gaming Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 1GB SDMSG-1024-A10

SanDisk Gaming Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 2GB SDMSG-2048-A10

SanDisk Gaming Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 4GB SDMSG-4096-A10

SanDisk Gaming Memory Stick PRO Duo™ 8GB SDMSG-8192-A10

SanDisk RapidGX Memory Stick PRO Duo™

SanDisk Gaming RapidGX 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo™ SDMSGX3-1024-A10

SanDisk Gaming RapidGX 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo™ SDMSGX3-2048

SanDisk Video HD™ Memory Stick PRO Duo

SanDisk Video HD™ Memory Stick PRO Duo 4GB SDMSPDHV-004G-A15

SanDisk Video HD™ Memory Stick PRO Duo 8GB SDMSPDHV-008G-A15

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2)

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 64 MB

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 128 MB

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 256 MB

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 512 MB

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 1 GB SDMSM2-1024-A10M

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 2 GB SDMSM2-2048

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 4 GB SDMSM2-4096

SanDisk Memory Stick Micro™ (M2) 8 GB SDMSM2-8192

Lexar

Lexar 2GB Gaming Edition Memory Stick Pro DUO

Lexar 1GB Gaming Edition Memory Stick Pro DUO

Dane Elec

Dane-Elec Memorystick Pro Duo 2 GB DA-MSDP-2048-R

Dane-Elec Memorystick Pro Duo 4 GB DA-MSDP-4096-R

Memory Stick Evolution over Firmware change

Official Firmware

Firmware 2.01, October 3, 2005 : The multimedia have been increase for the Memory Stick's content.

Firmware 2.71, May 30, 2006 : Improve support for memory sticks with a 2GB capacity.

Firmware 2.81, September 7, 2006 : Improve support for memory sticks with a capacity of or greater than 4GB.

Firmware 3.80, December 17, 2007 : Sony heavily "optimized" the fatmsmod.prx which is the memory stick driver, reducing the size by nearly 80kb.

- Certain memory cards will be totally unreadable until formatted

- In most cases, memory card access is slowed down considerably

- SaveData is sometimes impossible to load or save and the Saved Data Utility will sometimes be totally blank

Note that it was recommended to format Memory Stick with 3.80 driver to optimize its reading on this firmware.

Sources: Maxconsole's Forum

Firmware 3.90, January 30, 2008 : Support for 8GB memory sticks.

Unofficial Firmware

3.80 M33 Firmware

In direct relation with Sony's Memory Stick driver "optimization" the 3.80 M33 CFW has many dysfunction with the Memory Stick support. Another change Sony made was in the np9660 file which runs ISOs from the memory stick. In 3.80, it is slower than the M33 driver. For incompatibility/compatibility list see over there

- Certain memory cards will be totally unreadable until formatted

- In most cases, memory card access is slowed down considerably

- ISOs will lag or appear to be running slowly, CSOs are even worse

- SaveData is sometimes impossible to load or save and the Saved Data Utility will sometimes be totally blank

- Homebrew is lagged considerably, such as ROM loading

- On certain memory cards, plugins will not load

- Homebrew and ISOs tend to crash on exit

Note that it was recommended to format Memory Stick with 3.80 driver to optimize its reading on this firmware.

Sources: Maxconsole's Forum

3.80 M33-4 Firmware Revision

Fix the np9660.prx to run correctly

3.80 M33-5 Firmware Revision

Allow the CPU speed to be increased over 222Mhz, this can alleviate/mask most of the lag issues. Memory Stick compatibility don't solve yet.

1.50 Kernel addon for 3.90 M33 Ver. 2

Support for homebrew running on 1.50 Kernel mode on the whole Memory Stick for greater than 4 GB sticks. Before this update, the homebrews on the last 4 GB of the card wasn't seen or has problem for running. Actual capacity have been increase to 2 TB.

Fatmsmod Patch

Version 1:

To correct the fatmsmod.prx compression of Sony causing lag with ISO loading, this patch allow load the 3.71 fatmsmod.prx on 3.80/3.90 M33 CFW to make memory stick reading work better.

Apply patch flashes the fatmsmod.prx as flash0:/kd/fatms371.prx, it adds a custom file needed to compatibilize the module with 3.80/3.90 (fatms371_friend.prx), and changes the pspbt* files.

Note: fatmsmod of 3.71 usually works better because it has a better cache system, and usually reads on bigger blocks.

(In some cases it's worse than 3.89/3.90 like sometimes reading more data than needed - lazy prediction -).

However it uses more kernel memory, and it is unknown if it will have any kind of secondary effect running this module in 3.80/3.90

Version 2:

Added to the installer the check of correct checksum of fatmsmod.prx. Use only encrypted or decrypted version of file. It also allow the reading of music, videos which wasn't working in release as well as some other apps.

Fake Memory Stick

Main articles: Fake Memory Stick

In reaction to the Quasi Monopoly of Sony on is proprietary format of flash memory, a lot of retailer used to sell cheaper Memory Stick. It's important to be careful because there is some fake Memory Stick on the underground market.

How to detect a fake Memory Stick

For further info on How to detect fake's Memory Stick see full article: How to detect Fake Memory Stick

Physical way There is many details that can confirm if your memory stick is a fake. The principal one is the Magicgate support. But there is also the color of the circle who indicate the MS capacity. Also, with some fakes, the memory stick would often have to be forced in order to stay in the slot and be read by the PSP.

Via XMB Using the Certificate Utility feature integrated into every firmware. This allows the user to check whether or not the memory stick are really genuine or not. Most of the time, the results displayed are true. To check using this method:

-Boot into the XMB with the memory stick you want to test. Go to one of the Memory Stick options under GAME/PHOTO/MUSIC/VIDEO and press Triangle.

-Go down to Information.

-Read the third line. If it displays 'MagicGate Supported', it is real, if it displays 'MagicGate Unsupported or Unknown' it is fake.

Memory allocation

The 4 GB Memory Stick's is formatted in FAT32 by default. It seem that some experience shown that formating them to FAT16 as the 2 GB would accelerate them. It seem that 2 GB isn't the highest capacity for FAT16.

Note, it is not black or white in this thread, a 2 GB stick formatted in FAT16 will have a cluster size of 32kb. Exceptionally by using 64 KB clusters, the OS can format a partition up to 4096 MO (4 GB) in FAT16. You'll need to run an WinNT 4.0 and up OS to deal with 64 KB custlers. What this means is, even if you have a very small file (like an 8kb .txt file) it will still take up the full 64kb of space because a file fills one whole cluster. FAT32 has a cluster size of only 4kb for a 2 GB partition (or stick) as opposed to FAT16's 32kb cluster size, so it could be guessed that for a 4 GB stick, FAT32 would have a 16kb cluster size opposed to FAT16's 64kb cluster size. FAT16 may be faster but it would waste more space on a 4 GB Memory Stick.

It can be useful, especially if you encounter problem with some CSO running slowly. 4GB FAT16 is not compatible for Win95/98/Me but if you have WinXP then you'll have nothing to worry. However your OS won't do it in user interface you'll have to "tweak" it to format the MS using MS-DOS.[2][3]

Many homebrews uses very small files like config files and images for sprites and such. FAT16 would be kind of bad for lots of homebrew like this. You might think it's not losing much space but it really is. If you filled up 2 GB or so of the stick with files like that you could lose hundreds of megs of actual space. All I want to say is, for PSX games and such (large files) FAT16 is perfectly fine, but for running lots of homebrew it might not be the best choice.

See Also

Useful Homebrew and Application

Homebrew:

BlackSPEED v2: It is a benchmark homebrew for your Memory Stick. The cool feature about it is it's GUI at the difference with PSXReality Memory Stick Tester v1.0.

Official Website: [4]

More info on: Maxconsole

MSTest V1: Another benchmark create by MIB.42 who also release a PDF File comparing the speed between different MS.

More info: DCEmu Forum

PSXReality Memory Stick Tester v1.0 : This homebrew is not only a port of MSTest V1 by MIB.42 to 3.xx CFW, it's also an upgrade. It is extremely precise.

Official Website: PSX Reality

More info: QJ.net & DCEmu Forum

Application:

FakeCard v1.5 : It is a tool to format your fake Memory Stick to made them readable, did increase it's speed and reduce the lag, it don't always work but you should give a look.

Sony Memory Stick Formatter Software: It is the official tool release by Sony to format your Memory Stick.

Official Website: http://www.sonydigital-link.com

Memory Stick Data Rescue Service: It is a tool to to recover lost data from various types of Sony Memory Stick. Note: You need to own a Sony Memory Stick in order to download it from Sony Website.

Official Website: http://www.sonydigital-link.com

External Link

How to identify counterfeit Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo MagicGate Cards.