SD Express is boosting card capacities to 128 TB and data transfer rates to 985 MB/s

With the new SD 7.0 specification, SD cards are gaining higher capacities and faster read and write speeds. And now that the SD Association has introduced SD Express we’re seeing this become a reality.

Using PCI Express and NVMe interfaces allowd SD Express to offer a maximum data transfer rates up to 985 MB/s and a crazy spacious 128TB capacity with SD Ultra Capacity cards — SDUC. This is huge, because previously SD cards under 6.0 specifications maxed out at 2TB with 624 MB/s with SDXC.

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

SD Express adds PCI Express and NVMe interfaces to keep up with heavy demands

To meet the needs of more demanding applications, like 8K video capture and playback, 360-degree cameras, LoT devices, and drones, SD Express uses PCI Express and NVMe interfaces.

“SD Express’ use of popular PCIe [3.0] and NVMe [v1.3] interfaces to deliver faster transfer speeds is a savvy choice since both protocols are widely used in the industry today and creates a compelling choice for devices of all types,” says Mats Larsson, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource.

You can expect to see SD Express to be include in SDUC, SDXC and SDHC memory cards. The microSD form factor will also be receiving SD Express.

Watch the video below for further explanation: