The SD 9.1 standard will improve the speeds of the best microSD cards available today, with the next generation of SD cards reaching speeds of up to 2 GB/s.
With SD 9.1, unveiled by the SD Association (SDA), the next cohort of SD Express memory cards will use PCIe Gen4 capable of delivering 1,969 MB/s – more than double the maximum speeds introduced with the first microSD protocol in the SD 7.1 -specification.
SD Express memory cards come in four variants, including SD Express Seed Class 150, 300, 450 and 600 – with these numbers corresponding to the minimum read and write speeds measured in Mb/s. This means that these microSD cards have a range of 0.6 GB/s to 2 GB/s. In contrast, the best portable SSDs usually top out at around 1 GB/s.
The fastest microSD cards ever
What that really means is the ability to transfer a Blu-ray movie, which is about 25 GB in size, in 12.5 seconds. Such speeds will also be fast enough to handle transferring 8K video files, which are relatively large, with ease.
The SD Express speed classes, which are available on SDXC, SDUC microSDXC, and microSDUC memory cards, are dependent on changes in the memory technology used in creating the storage standard.
“By defining minimum guaranteed sequential performance standards for SD Express memory cards, the SDA will help both device manufacturers and consumers ensure the best recording and playback of all types of content,” said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, SDA president.
“We’ve doubled the speed of microSD Express to 2GB/s to give product manufacturers more storage options suitable for the most demanding storage applications, making SD Express memory cards an attractive, environmentally responsible choice, making it easier to repair devices and to upgrade.”
SD Express uses NVMe specifications and offers various power management settings via maximum power levels. These maximum power level values are set by a host device to carefully manage how warm the card gets and ensure it can maintain its speed for extended periods while transferring files.
SDA says memory cards built on this latest standard will be especially useful for creative industry professionals who regularly need to move massive amounts of files between devices. The cards are intended for transferring slow motion video, raw data, 8K video, and footage from 360-degree cameras, to name a few use cases.