New SD cards to store 2 TB

08 Jan 09 20:31 by Jared Newman in category Memory cards To news archive

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The SD Association has unveiled a new generation of SD cards, dubbed SDXC. These “eXtended Capacity” cards are likely to provide 64 GB of storage at first and will eventually max out at a whopping 2 TB.

Read/write speeds will start at 104 MB per second, but the SD Association plans to push that speed to 300 MB per second over time.

Mobile phones are seen as the main benefactor in this development. One could imagine fancier video games and higher quality music and video if this new generation becomes the standard.

“SDXC allows users to enjoy more from their mobile phones. Larger capacity and faster transfer speeds allow for expanded entertainment and data storage,” James Taylor, President of the SD Association, said in a press release. “At its maximum 2TB capacity, an SDXC memory card will store an estimated 100 HD movies, 480 hours of HD recording or 136,000 fine-mode photos.”

Obviously, camcorders and cameras will benefit as well. Shigeto Kanda, a general manager at Canon, suggests in the press release that SDXC can store more than 4,000 RAW images.

There’s no mention of replacing optical media in this press release, but it’s a point that will become hard to ignore if these cards become cheaper. At least for storage purposes, SD could beat out discs in the long run.

As for replacing entertainment media, with all the standalone Blu-Ray players, DVD drives and car CD players, that’s going to be slow to budge. In any case, it’s not something that the SD Association is touting right now.

8 Comments

Blu-rayFreak: Posts: 367; Posted on: 08 Jan 09 20:47

Wow, this is incredible. I wonder if there will also be micro SDXC cards and what their maximum capacity might be.

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5757; Posted on: 08 Jan 09 21:13

Mobile phones my ass! Maybe the 64GB ones, but once these hit 250 to 500GB look out. This is something for the media junkie! Hmmm I can see these taking the place of external HDD for sure. Can you imagine a tiny "media server" ( USB 3.0 card reader ) with these cards plugging into slots? You could easily swap them out etc. Home theater owners will love these things.

Also, just think about taking a bunch of ripped movies, that were already in your server, just pull it out and stick it in your laptop for the road.

We need to keep an eye on these!

Vbritt: Posts: 28; Posted on: 08 Jan 09 21:21

I can see these replacing both DVD's and Blu-Ray discs as the vehicle of choice. I believe that Samsung already has a player that reads SD cards for still photo's and home High Def recordings. Once the price comes down this would be the way to go.

debro: Posts: 11643; Posted on: 08 Jan 09 22:24

I foresee cheap chinese versions with poor reliability screwing up everyones faith in flash based products. By the time these capacities are realised, bluray will be cemented in. And what about the production costs associated. Flash products haven't even caught up with DVD for cost/capacity @ consumer level.

Crabbyappleton: Posts: 5757; Posted on: 08 Jan 09 23:07

Oh, and where are the cheap Blu-ray players going to be manufactured? Switzerland? The only thing being cemented in with Blu-ray is the feet of the consumer.

The other problem facing the optical disc is the form factor. Its physical attributes severly limits its versatitlity and hampers engineering new players and recorders as they have to be able to hold and drive a disc. Would you rather have a Sansa flash based MP3 player or a portable CD player and a backpack to hold your collection?

The only time I use an optical disc now is to watch a movie at the house. I can't remember the last time I wrote to one except that it was to give to a co-worker so he could watch the same movie and I could keep the original at home.

Then, they cut their own throats and make it against the law to transfer the info to any other medium. You might as well buy something that you can move around anyway you want in even very pocket sized devices.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 09 Jan 09 07:01

This is a cool idea but somehow I doubt many of us will be able to afford a 2tb card when these come out. Believe it or not there is still a demand and a need for optical medium to archive data.

BitRate: Posts: 411; Posted on: 10 Jan 09 13:05

Optical media is still widely used for playback and recording in most industries and one would have to be nuts to think such media will be disappearing anytime soon. Heck, one can still buy brand new VHS tapes!

I can see a point in time when SD & HD (AVC) movies will be available cheaply on SDXC or similar flash memory. It's a long way off but inevitable given that the push for a stable, fast and highly portable storage medium is desirable.

guest: Posts: 15288; Posted on: 30 Apr 09 07:52

Well, it is still MAGNETIC and volatile it will be cheap though your info will be guarrantied to dissapear.

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Memory cards

Flash memory comes in different types and is used by all kinds of products, e.g. cameras, MP3-players, telephones. The great advantage of flash memory is the fact that it has no moving parts, so it is shock resistant and hardly wears. It is also very small and very light, which makes it perfect for use in portable digital devices.More about this

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New SD cards to store 2 TB

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Memory cards

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