SD cards hop on the PCIe 4.0 bus to hit 4GB/s with version 8.0 of storage spec
(2020/05/20)
- Reference: 1589959508
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/20/sd_card_spec_version_8/
- Source link:
The SD Association, which oversees the design of SD cards, has emitted version 8.0 of its specification that promises to accelerate the mini-memory storage standard to a tick under 4GB/s.
As outlined in a [1]whitepaper [PDF] this month, the new spec will let existing SD Express and microSD Express cards employ PCIe 4.0 and NVMe to deliver a top speed data transfer speed of 3940 MB/s.
While the [2]new spec is backwards-compatible, the latest top speed will only come with a card reader capable of connecting to the extra row of pins present on SD Express cards that support dual PCIe lanes.
The SD Association isn’t a lone wolf so those readers will be ubiquitous.
The Association imagines its new spec will be used to capture 8K video in real-time, in Internet of Things devices and in automotive applications. However multi-PCIe-lane-capable cameras are not yet a thing and automakers like to keep their bills of materials a few years behind the bleeding edge. So it may be a while before very fast SD cards are an everyday luxury.
[3]
SD Cards: past, present and future
Click to enlarge
The good news is that SD Express and microSD Express cards can still get to 1970 MB/s on a device with a single PCIe 4.x lane under version 8 of the specification, and SD Express can get there with a pair of 3.x lanes. Which is rather faster than many SSDs and, as SD Express can climb to 128TB on a single card, a rather tasty storage option. ®
[1] https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/pls/latest_whitepapers/SD_Express_microSD_Express_BestChoice_WhitePaper20200515.pdf
[2] https://www.sdcard.org/press/thoughtleadership/200519_SD_Association_Delivers_Gigabyte_Speed_Leap_with_New_SD_Express_8_0.html
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/05/20/sd_express_spec_and_sd_history.jpg
As outlined in a [1]whitepaper [PDF] this month, the new spec will let existing SD Express and microSD Express cards employ PCIe 4.0 and NVMe to deliver a top speed data transfer speed of 3940 MB/s.
While the [2]new spec is backwards-compatible, the latest top speed will only come with a card reader capable of connecting to the extra row of pins present on SD Express cards that support dual PCIe lanes.
The SD Association isn’t a lone wolf so those readers will be ubiquitous.
The Association imagines its new spec will be used to capture 8K video in real-time, in Internet of Things devices and in automotive applications. However multi-PCIe-lane-capable cameras are not yet a thing and automakers like to keep their bills of materials a few years behind the bleeding edge. So it may be a while before very fast SD cards are an everyday luxury.
[3]
SD Cards: past, present and future
Click to enlarge
The good news is that SD Express and microSD Express cards can still get to 1970 MB/s on a device with a single PCIe 4.x lane under version 8 of the specification, and SD Express can get there with a pair of 3.x lanes. Which is rather faster than many SSDs and, as SD Express can climb to 128TB on a single card, a rather tasty storage option. ®
[1] https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/pls/latest_whitepapers/SD_Express_microSD_Express_BestChoice_WhitePaper20200515.pdf
[2] https://www.sdcard.org/press/thoughtleadership/200519_SD_Association_Delivers_Gigabyte_Speed_Leap_with_New_SD_Express_8_0.html
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/05/20/sd_express_spec_and_sd_history.jpg
Still not fast enough
TWB
For uncompressed 4K... (I know, not many people use it)
But still impressive.
So not full speed on any Intel platform then
Steve Todd
Plus there’s the question of power consumption (PCIe 4 isn’t designed with mobile power constraints in mind).
128TB ?
Pascal Monett
Dear God, please give me a NAS enclosure that can support 128TB SDs.
I promise I'll be a good boy.
Re: 128TB ?
TrumpSlurp the Troll
P!us a 5G mobile phone which supports this card for a pocket cloud server.
I can see me building a new mini media server, for my special movie collection.