SD cards to get 300MB/s bus
SD 4.0 spec roadmapped
The guardians of the SD memory card specification announced version 3.0 of the technology less than a year ago, but that hasn't stopped them talking up version 4.0 already.
SDXC, launched on 7 January 2009, takes the card's capacity to 2TB and ups the maximum data transfer rate at the bus to 104MB/s.
SD 4.0 - which will also be branded SDXC, it seems - almost triples the bus speed, to 300MB/s.
Like SD 3.0, 4.0 cards use the eXFAT file-system, so the maximum capacity will stay at 2TB. eXFAT is also known as FAT 64, the 64-bit upgrade to FAT 32.
Earlier this year, the SD Association said it was exploring SDXC's bus speed to 300MB/s. What it didn't say, but is now made clear, is that the upgrade will require a new pin array. SD cards current sport nine contacts on the edge of the card, but that is going to increase, the SD Association admitted.
SD 4.0 cards will have ten pins, one of which will handle the serialised data stream that runs at 300MB/s. The remainder will operate in parallel to deliver backwards compatibility. The size and shape of the card will not change.
The SD 4.0 spec is due to be completed by Spring 2010. ®
COMMENTS
May it crush blu-ray!
May it crush blu-ray and other horrible oversized scratchy media that requires a dedicated player to play!
The higher end SD cards are almost caught up to blu-ray capacity, and will easily outsize them within a year. I look forward to watching movies off these instead of forking out a (few?) hundred quid for a player.
A load of companies seem to be all about the green recently too, that is, the environment and nature. I'm sure these reusable badboys are far better for the environment than thousands of bl-ray players and the single use optical media that come with them.
Paris because she knows all about making movies...
2 TB ??
There is not going to be any 2 TB SD cards anytime soon, or any 1 TB cards or even any 256 GB cards. Would be nice though. My new computer could just a few SD card slots. Think of the possibilities. Boot from SD, back up to SD. Store your laptop seperate from its bootable SD card so if its stolen u don't loose your data. Anyway who could afford a 2 TB SD card ??
