2009 Improves Memory

Memory formats are about to take an evolutionary step up as two new standards push their way up the food chain and make it just that much harder for you to run out of space.

Memory formats are about to take an evolutionary step up as two new standards push their way up the food chain and make it just that much harder for you to run out of space.

First out the gates is the new SD (Secure Digital) format SDXC, or SD eXtended Capacity (you know, because using an “X” in your name makes your product cooler).

The SDXC card is just like your regular SD card except can offer a transfer rate of up to 300 megabytes per second and up to 2 terabytes in storage capacity.

The first release of these cards will hit right before March and have transfer speeds of up to 104 megabytes per second with the faster units hopefully making it to release later on in the year.

The other big players making splashes in the memory realm is SanDisk & Sony. A collaborative effort will see them releasing a format with an “Extended High Capacity” with a maximum capacity of 2 terabytes while the new “Memory Stick HG Micro” card delivers a maximum transfer speed of 60 megabytes per second.

While both formats are being designed & spec’d to reach a limit of 2 terabytes (think of that as four 500GB drives your computer has), it’s unlikely that cards of that size will come out upon first release.

I guess I’m going to need yet another card reader. *sigh*

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