One thing to look ahead to: Reminiscence card makers have solely lately begun unveiling merchandise that meet the SD Specific efficiency customary, regardless of the specification having been out there for a very long time. These new playing cards function unprecedented speeds, aiding content material creators and broadcasters in rapidly encoding high-resolution, high-refresh-rate video. Moreover, Western Digital plans to introduce customary SD playing cards with multi-terabyte capacities.

Western Digital unveiled a number of new reminiscence playing cards this week on the 2024 NAB Present in Las Vegas, pushing velocity and capability to new ranges. With this announcement, Western Digital joins Samsung in introducing commercially out there ultra-portable SD Specific storage in 2024.

The best choice for high-speed microSD playing cards in our SD card purchaser’s information – the SanDisk Excessive UHS-I U3/V30 A2 – encompasses a learn velocity of roughly 200MB/s, however the newly introduced SanDisk SD and microSD Specific variants can obtain almost 4 and a half occasions that velocity. Western Digital’s testing means that they may attain 900MB/s.

The corporate does not point out write speeds, however the listed efficiency targets might almost double that of a typical SATA SSD. The merchandise are slated for common availability beginning this summer season, however pricing stays unclear.

Western Digital plans to supply the Specific playing cards in 128GB and 265GB capacities, however the firm can be introducing the largest-ever UHS-I merchandise. The very best-capacity playing cards presently out there prime out at 1TB or 1.5TB, however WD plans to interrupt the 2TB barrier for SD and microSD playing cards in the summertime, with 4TB fashions coming in 2025.

Though the corporate hasn’t mentioned worth tags, 1TB playing cards can hover round $100 or $200, so merchandise doubling or quadrupling that cupboard space might price a whole lot of {dollars}.

Additionally learn: microSD and SD Card Shopping for Information

Samsung introduced its first SD Specific playing cards final month, boasting 800MB/s learn speeds and 1GB/s write speeds, with a launch deliberate for later this yr. The corporate additionally unveiled its first 1TB microSD playing cards, albeit trailing behind the competitors.

The SD Specific customary has existed for a while, and the SD Affiliation launched the SD Specific 9.1 specification late final yr, which might harness PCIe 4.0 and NVMe {hardware} to attain speeds of 2GB/s. Nevertheless, producers have been gradual to undertake the usual as a result of current merchandise can already deal with 4K video.

Use instances and supporting {hardware} for higher-performance reminiscence playing cards stay considerably restricted. Nevertheless, SD Specific might show helpful for duties akin to 8K video and 120Hz video, or doubtlessly AI functions.