One can never have too much memory capacity at the ready, and the SD Association is saying that come next year, you can expect at least double what SD cards already offer.

Earlier this year the SD Association that oversees everything to do with Secure Digital (SD) cards announced that new standard were being put in place that would carry the format in to storage ranges from 32GB to 2 Terrabytes.  Now the information is being released that when Secure Digital eXtended Capacity (SDXC) is released next year, the format will be jumping directly to the 64GB capacity.

With greater capacity will also come faster transfer speeds.  The 64GB cards are expected to write data at 52MB a second, but the new standards have theoretical limits of up 300MB a second, something that will have to be achieved if the 2 Terrabyte cards do ever manifest.  While there is still no firm release date for the new cards, the SD Association has sent out the new specs to the 1,100 member companies this past April.

One unfortunate side effect of this new standard will be getting an SD card that reads the SDXC cards.  While the newer slots will be backward compatible with your current SD media, your older SD cards will not be able to use the new format when it is released.  Even the card is keeping the same form factor, the read and write process is different enough that any cameras that you have that use SD to record will not be able to use SDXC.  This will also be true for any computers with built-in readers, which is somewhat intriguing as Apple just announced that many of its Mac Book Pros are now shipping with SD card slots as opposed to the old card expansion slots.

Expect to see the new cards show up sometime in 2010, but make sure you have compatible readers and equipment before you run out to purchase any.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 3:43 pm under Storage, Technology.

Read more entries by Sean P. Aune.
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