It’s been exactly one year since I started this project. I’ve set up 8 machines with close to 70 card readers running around the clock. I’m writing 101 terabytes of data per day. I’ve written 18 petabytes of data to 181 microSD cards and destroyed 51 of them. Don’t believe me? Check out my graveyard:
On the anniversary of this project, I thought it might be good to do a retrospective and cover things I’ve learned in the last year.
If you’ve been following my microSD Card Survey, you might have noticed that I publish manufacturer IDs for (almost) all of the cards that I’ve tested (save a few where they came DOA or where I tested them before I thought to dump the registers off the card).
I know that there are otherresources out there that have compiled lists of SD card manufacturer IDs, but I thought I’d publish my own based on what I’ve seen during the course of my testing. So without further ado:
Manufacturer ID
OEM ID(s)
Associated Brand Names
00
0000
Auotkn, “Lenovo” (knockoff), QEEDNS, QWQ, SanDian, “Sony” (knockoff), “Xiaomi” (knockoff) — pretty much any fake flash vendor who wants to cover their tracks.
Amzwn, Kingston, Kodak, Micro Center, Silicon Power
ad
4c53 (ASCII: LS)
Amazon Basics, Chuxia, Lexar3, OV, Raspberry Pi4
df
2306
Lenovo
fe
3432 (ASCII: 42)
ALUNX, Auotkn, Bekit, Cloudisk, HP, Reletech
1Multiple sources attribute this manufacturer ID to Phison. While I don’t disagree, I just haven’t come across any Phison-branded cards yet.
2The cards tested here dated to before Lexar’s sale to Longsys.
3The cards tested here dated to after Lexar’s sale to Longsys.
4The announcement on Raspberry Pi’s website specifically mentions that they worked with Longsys to develop these cards — so I think that pretty much confirms that this manufacturer ID belongs to Longsys.