SD association announces new SDXC standard.

At CES 2009, the SD card association announced a new standard for SD (Secure Digital) cards: SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity).

This new standard builds on the current SDHC (High Capacity) cards by setting specifications for memory sizes from 32GB up to 2 Terabytes, and access speeds of 104MB/s, all in the same SD card form factor.  These capacities and speeds will make SD cards more applicable for data intensive applications like HD video recording. Allowing for significantly less compressed video codecs and longer record times. In addition the ruggedness and longevity of flash memory lends itself as a permanent archiving solution at these capacities.

The SD association just set the spec, so it’s now up to the manufacturers to turn this into tangible products for the market, so don’t expect 2TB SD cards immediately, but it’s nice to know what’s on the horizon.