Toshiba to launch 8GB Class 4 SD cards in January

Toshiba has anounced today its new series of Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) flash memory cards, including an 8GB Class 4 card, which it claims to be one of the first in the industry, according to this DigiTimes report.  This card is due for launch early January 2007 and features the equivalent capacity to a dual-layer DVD disc.  As the card meets the Class 4 standard, it features a minimum transfer rate of 4MB per second.  Its maximum data transfer rate is 6MB/sec.

However, while its capacity may seem impressive for the card’s physical size, unfortunately its performance appears to be way behind of lower capacity cards currently available, with many boasting sppeds of up to 133x (~20MB/sec).  To give a comparison, 6MB/sec is the equivalent to a 40x speed card.  So for consumers where high speed data transfers are critical, such as for high-speed continuous shooting in photography, we would recommend holding off until higher speed 8GB cards are developed.  One other thing to note is that unlike standard secure digital cards up to 2GB, Secure Digital High Capcity cards require SDHC compatible equipment and memory card readers to be able to use them.

Update:  The official press release from Toshiba can be read here.  Note that according to the Toshiba press-release and this other report by Toshiba about SD speed classes, the Class 4 standard for Secure Digital requires a minimum transfer rate of 4MB per second, despite some confusion reported by our readers that the DigiTimes source mentions 4GB per second.