SD Express brings PCI Express and NVMe speeds in a compact package

The SD Association has just announced the next-generation compact storage cards called SD Express, aiming to bring great speeds at a small package.

Announced at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, the new technology brings in PCI Express and NVMe speeds in a smaller form, thus achieving maximum data transmission speeds of up to 985 megabytes per second (MB/s). In comparison, the current SDXC UHS-III cards can only attain a maximum of 624MB/s, and the same can be said with most SSDs on SATA-III connection are slower than the SD Express.

With a faster data transmission rate, the new SD Express standard will allow users not only to transfer large amounts of data quickly but also process it in real time, including more comprehensive RAW files, 360-degree content, or even Augmented and Virtual Reality. These also use less power compared to other SD cards and is backwards compatible, which is a plus.

“With SD Express we’re offering an entirely new level of a memory card with faster protocols turning cards into a removable SSD,” said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, SDA president. “SD 7.0 delivers revolutionary innovations to anticipate the needs of forthcoming devices and content rich and speed hungry applications.”

The new SD Express cards will be marked with an EX I symbol on the card body and can range from your usual 2 or 4GB to a whopping 128TB with the newly-created SDUC (SD Ultra-Capacity) standard. Expect storage makers to release their versions in the coming months.

Source: SDA