Editing 691: MicroSD

{{comic
| number    = 691
| date      = January 20, 2010
| title     = MicroSD
| image     = microsd.png
| titletext = That card holds a refrigerator carton's worth of floppy discs, and a soda can full of those cards could hold the entire iTunes store's music library. Mmmm.
}}

==Explanation==
{{w|Secure_Digital|microSD}} is one format of the Secure Digital memory card format, used in digital cameras, cell phones, and other devices. It is very small, only 15×11×1 mm, but can hold large amounts of data. The {{w|US dime}} in contrast has a diameter of 17.91 mm. When this comic was published in January 2010 the maximum capacity for microSD cards was 16GB. The current maximum capacity is 1.5TB (as of December 2023).

The main character in the comic (on the right) thinks about all the ideas that could be expressed by the data in the microSD card, or in a library. He feels not just reverent and intimidated, but sexually aroused by the thought. As he begins to touch it, his friend is disgusted by what might happen if he uses the card as some kind of sex toy, and does not want to help him locate the card if it gets lost (inside a body cavity).

The title text seems to be the main character thinking about how much data the card holds, in terms of {{w|floppy disks}} and the {{w|iTunes}} music library, and feeling aroused by these thoughts.

Randall's claims in the title text do check out. A high-density floppy disk with a FAT format holds about 1.4 MB of data, and has dimensions of 90×94×3 mm, for a volume of about 25 cm³. A refrigerator carton is the large cardboard box that fridges are delivered in. A typical refrigerator carton may be 1800×700×700 mm, a volume of about 0.9 m³. So a fridge carton could hold about thirty-five thousand 90 mm floppies, or roughly 50GB. This is comparable to the storage on a single microSD card. A soda can (500 ml = 500 cm³) could hold three thousand microSD cards or store 50TB of data (4500TB today). The iTunes store claimed to hold thirty-five million songs in Summer 2016, and allowing for about 2MB per song gives 70 TB of music. But the library would have been smaller in Spring of 2014 when the comic was created. As of January 2023, Apple Music had about 100 million songs, with much larger average file sizes of around 6 MB. That amounts to about 600 TB total, which is still far less than the 3000 TB that could fit in a soda can of microSD cards at the time. So Randall's claim seems to be correct.

There is a what if [http://what-if.xkcd.com/31/ blog entry] related to this topic.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and a friend approach a table.]
:Cueball: Hey, what's up?
:Friend: Shhhhh.
:Cueball: Hrm?
:Friend: There's a microSD card on your table.

:[A 16GB microSD card sits next to an assortment of coins for size reference.]
:Cueball (out of panel): So?
:Friend (out of panel): I dunno, high storage densities freak me out. A whole aisle of library shelves on something smaller than a dime.

:[The two people stand near the table, the friend peering at the coins and card on the table.]
:Friend: Libraries are unnerving enough-millions of ideas surrounding you, towering over you. These cards fill me with that same reverence, that same intimidation.

:[Cueball stands alone.]
:Friend (out of panel): ...that same faint arousal. Maybe I'll just touch it.
:Cueball: If you lose that card I'm <u>NOT</u> helping you find it.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]