The SD Association, the non-profit organization responsible for setting SD memory card standards, today announced the latest iteration of the popular SD memory card. SD Express brings a maximum data transfer rate of 985 MB/s, and increases maximum storage capacity to a capacious 128 TB.
Part of the SD 7.0 specification, SD Express adds PCI Express and NVMe interfaces to support the speeds and capacities needed for ever more demanding applications, such as 8K video capture and playback, 360-degree cameras, IoT devices, mobile computing devices, cars, and drones.
Whereas data transfer rates for the SD 6.0 specification topped out at 624 MB/s and storage was limited to 2 TB, SD Express substantially improves on these numbers – in cards with either micro or full-size form factors. SD Express will initially be found in SDUC, SDXC and SDHC memory cards, which will also be backwards compatible with existing devices.
"SD Express' use of popular PCIe [3.0] and NVMe [v1.3] interfaces to deliver faster transfer speeds is a savvy choice since both protocols are widely used in the industry today and creates a compelling choice for devices of all types," says Mats Larsson, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource.
"With SD Express we're offering an entirely new level of memory card with faster protocols turning cards into a removable SSD," adds Hiroyuki Sakamoto, SDA president. "SD 7.0 delivers revolutionary innovations to anticipate the needs of forthcoming devices and content rich and speed hungry applications."
SD Express is explained in the video below.
Source: SD Association