- Messages
- 2,514
- Name
- Andrew
- Edit My Images
- No
As we know, more and more Cameras are now supporting the ultra fast CF Express Type B cards which not only are coming out in incredibly large capacities, but also blindingly quick read and write speeds currently typically approx. 1700mb/sec, but with the adoption of PCIe Gen 4, those speeds are set to get much faster when camera manufactures start supporting the Gen 4 protocol with appropriate hardware built into the cameras.
So, I've been wondering for a while what's the future of the humble SD card ? Whist capacities have increased over the last few years (i.e. 256gb or 512gb cards are quite common now), SD is still hampered by the maximum read and write speed of the bus architecture (typically around 300mb/sec max.). A lot of physically small cameras (the smaller Sony's, Micro Four thirds and smaller Nikon Z's for example), would require major redesigns to accommodate CF Express Type B card slots instead of the much smaller and thinner SD slots. I thought that was pretty much where the development ended for SD cards and that it's future long term was very insecure.
However, I've just been over to the SD Associations website, and apparently we will all soon be introduced to the new New SD Express cards. This includes doubling the microSD Express memory card speed up to 2GB/s, using PCIe Gen4 interface. These new SD Express cards can make use of the same form factor as regular SD Cards, and are backwards compatible to slower interfaces.
From the SD Associations website:
SD Express memory cards are the newest generation of SD memory cards supporting the PCIe and NVMe interface beside the legacy SD UHS-I interface on the same card. The first SD Express cards were introduced with SD7.0 specifications for the full-size SD form factor supporting PCIe Gen 3 x1 lane interface. SD7.1 added the same capability to the microSD form factor. Then, SD8.0 introduced additional PCIe interfaces – PCIe Gen 4 x1, PCIe G3 x2 and PCIe Gen4 x2.
Allegedly according to the website, it's easy it is to add SD Express to virtually any host device. Maybe this is the future for smaller bodies that just don't have the space for the bigger cards ?
I thought it was interesting, hope you do too ?
So, I've been wondering for a while what's the future of the humble SD card ? Whist capacities have increased over the last few years (i.e. 256gb or 512gb cards are quite common now), SD is still hampered by the maximum read and write speed of the bus architecture (typically around 300mb/sec max.). A lot of physically small cameras (the smaller Sony's, Micro Four thirds and smaller Nikon Z's for example), would require major redesigns to accommodate CF Express Type B card slots instead of the much smaller and thinner SD slots. I thought that was pretty much where the development ended for SD cards and that it's future long term was very insecure.
However, I've just been over to the SD Associations website, and apparently we will all soon be introduced to the new New SD Express cards. This includes doubling the microSD Express memory card speed up to 2GB/s, using PCIe Gen4 interface. These new SD Express cards can make use of the same form factor as regular SD Cards, and are backwards compatible to slower interfaces.
From the SD Associations website:
SD Express memory cards are the newest generation of SD memory cards supporting the PCIe and NVMe interface beside the legacy SD UHS-I interface on the same card. The first SD Express cards were introduced with SD7.0 specifications for the full-size SD form factor supporting PCIe Gen 3 x1 lane interface. SD7.1 added the same capability to the microSD form factor. Then, SD8.0 introduced additional PCIe interfaces – PCIe Gen 4 x1, PCIe G3 x2 and PCIe Gen4 x2.
Allegedly according to the website, it's easy it is to add SD Express to virtually any host device. Maybe this is the future for smaller bodies that just don't have the space for the bigger cards ?
I thought it was interesting, hope you do too ?
