
MultiMediaCard Flash
Preliminary MultiMediaCard Product Manual;
1998 SANDISK CORPORATION
Page 34 of 79
5 MULTIMEDIACARD PROTOCOL DESCRIPTION
5.1 General
All communication between the host and MultiMediaCards is controlled by the host
(master). The host sends commands of two types: broadcast and addressed (point-to-
point) commands.
Broadcast Commands
Broadcast commands are intended for all MultiMediaCards. Some of these commands
require a response.
Addressed (Point-to-Point) Commands
The addressed commands are sent to the addressed MultiMediaCard and cause a
response from this card.
A general overview of the command flow is shown in Figure 5-1 for the Card Identification
Mode and in Figure 5-2 for the Data Transfer Mode. The commands are listed in the
command tables (Table 5-3 - Table 5-9). The dependencies between the current
MultiMediaCard state, received command and following state are listed in Table 5-10. In
the following sections, the different card operation modes will be described first.
Thereafter, the restrictions for controlling the clock signal are defined. All MultiMediaCard
commands together with the corresponding responses, state transitions, error conditions
and timings are presented in the following sections. Three operation modes are defined for
MultiMediaCards:
Card Identification Mode
The host will be in card identification mode after reset and while it is looking for new cards
on the bus. MultiMediaCards will be in this mode after reset until the SET_RCA command
(CMD3) is received.
Interrupt Mode
The host and all MultiMediaCards will enter and exit interrupt mode simultaneously. In the
interrupt mode there is no data transfer. The only message allowed is an interrupt service
request from one of the MultiMediaCards or the host.
Data Transfer Mode
MultiMediaCards will enter data transfer mode once an RCA is assigned to them. The host
will enter data transfer mode after identifying all the MultiMediaCards on the bus.
The following table shows the dependencies between bus modes, operation modes and
card states. Each state in the MultiMediaCard state diagram (Figure 5-1 and Figure 5-2) is
associated with one bus mode and one operation mode: