SD Express memory cards reach up to 3,938MB/s in latest specification

The SD Association has announced the SD 8.0 specification. The standardization organization behind the SD memory cards describes that, just like the SD 7.0 s specification, they use the pci-e interface and the nvme protocol, with which this time a maximum of 3,938MB/s is possible.

The SD Association describes that the new SD 8.0 specification is available for sdhc, sdxc and sduc memory cards, meaning a maximum storage capacity of 128TB is possible. That’s a theoretical limit. The current maximum capacity for SDXC cards is 2TB and in practice there are no SDXC memory cards with a storage capacity of more than 1TB.

The speed of up to 3,938MB/s is more than four times the maximum speed addressed by the SD 7.0 specification, which was announced in June 2018. The nvme protocol is still used, but this time it is not the PCI-e 3.0 interface, but the PCI-e 4.0 interface.

For example, this high speed can be very useful for photographers shooting super slow motion images, 8k videos, or 360-degree videos in the raw format. Cameras intended for this purpose often use SSDs, CFast or XQD memory cards. These alternatives to the SD memory cards already use the PCI-e interface.

The updated interface for the SD Express memory cards does not mean that they will be formatted differently. They retain the form factor and will also work normally in older devices. In the event that a device is not prepared for the new standard, the cards will fall back to the uhs-1 specification. In the same way, it is also possible to insert older SD cards into a card slot that is suitable for SD Express.

The new specification allows manufacturers to make SD memory cards based on the new standard. The SD Association has published a white paper explaining the new SD Express standard. It is not yet known when there will actually be devices on the market that support SD Express cards and when the memory cards will appear.