from the My-first-hard-disk-(HH-5¼")-stored-just-40MB dept.
Version 7.0 of the SD standard finally raises the storage limit to above 2 TB, which was being rapidly approached by both full size SD cards (1 TB) and microSD cards (512 GB). It also adds an SD Express mode, which can raise speeds up to 985 MB/s, from a previous limit of 624 MB/s:
Soon you will be able to purchase new SD cards with the SD Version 7.0 specification. The new specification supports up to 985MB/s of throughput, which comes courtesy of PCIe and NVMe interfaces, and up to 128TB of capacity. That's quite the jump over the current 2TB limit.
985MB/s of throughput for a simple SD card may seem ludicrous, but higher-resolution video, VR, automotive use-cases, and IoT applications are steadily encroaching upon the performance limits of today's products.
[...] The specification has reserved space for new pins for future use, so it also provides room for forward progress (PDF). The specification also accommodates up to 1.8W of power consumption, which will help boost performance. The NVMe 1.3 protocol also brings several new features to SD cards, like Host Memory Buffer (HMB), which sets aside a small portion of system memory to boost performance, and Multi-Queue support, which improves performance during simultaneous file transfers.
Press release. Also at PetaPixel.
Previously: Western Digital Demos SD Card Using PCIe Gen 3 x1 Interface for 880 MB/s Read Speed
Related Stories
Here's a challenge: do you reckon you can fill half-a-terabyte of memory using only a smartphone?
For some people, we're sure, the answer will be along the lines of “hold my beer while I set my camera to HDR mode and snap some selfies”. So the good news is that from February, you'll be able to lay out the readies on a 512 GB microSDXC card from Integral Memory.
At a transfer rate of 80 megabytes per second, you'd need more than an hour and a half to transfer a full card's worth of data; last year's 400 GB monster from SanDisk (no longer the world's biggest little memory card) still has the edge there, claiming a 100 MB/second transfer rate.
Integral's 512GB microSDXC V10, UHS-I U1 card is fast enough to meet V10 (Video speed class 10) for capturing full HD video.
Integral has put up a web page and a Spec sheet (pdf) for it.
Now we can set them up as media hubs for all.
Western Digital has demonstrated an SD card that can hit up to 880 MB/s sequential read and 430 MB/s sequential write speeds.
Western Digital demonstrated an experimental SD card featuring a PCIe Gen 3 x1 interface at Mobile World Congress. Meanwhile, the SD Card Association is calling upon the industry to adopt PCIe as a standard interface and to support the development of a complete SD PCIe standard.
Western Digital is demonstrating a system featuring an M.2-to-SD adapter with an SD card that offers 880 MB/s sequential read speeds as well as up to 430 MB/s sequential write speeds, according to the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. The drive uses the existing UHS-II/III pins to construct a PCIe 3.0 x1 interface with the system (via a mechanical adapter) and probably standard PCIe voltage with a converter. The company is not disclosing the type of memory or the controller that power the SD PCIe card, but it is clear that we are dealing with a custom solution. Meanwhile, Western Digital claims that the implementation costs of a PCIe interface is not high as one might expect, as a PCIe x1 PHY is not all that large.
Western Digital further notes that the SD card with a PCIe interface is not standard and will not hit the market any time soon, but is showing off the concept anyhow as they have seen interest from certain parties for this kind of removable storage solutions.
This exceeds the 312-624 MB/s data rates and UHS-III bus specified by version 6.0 (February 2017) of the Secure Digital standard.
Related: Secure Digital 5.0 Standard: Memory Cards Intended for 8K and Virtual Reality Recording
SanDisk Announces a 400 GB MicroSD Card
Half a Terabyte in Your Smartphone? Yup. That's Possible Now
Huawei's Nano Memory Cards are replacing microSD on its latest phones
Alongside the slate of new phones Huawei announced today was an interesting addition: a new type of expandable storage the company is calling Nano Memory (NM), which replaces the traditional microSD card in the newly announced Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro.
Huawei says that NM cards, which are identical in size and shape to a Nano SIM card, are 45 percent smaller than a microSD card, and come in at least a 256GB storage and 90MB/s transfer speed version that the company showed off onstage.
On the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro, the NM Card goes in one of the slots on the dual-SIM tray, with users having to choose between extra storage or a second SIM card.
The SD 5.0 standard added a 90 MB/s write speed class, intended to allow for 8K and 360° video recording.
The densest microSD cards available store 512 GB, so this 45% smaller 256 GB card could be of a comparable storage density.
Related: Samsung to Offer New Type of Flash Memory Card
Western Digital Demos SD Card Using PCIe Gen 3 x1 Interface for 880 MB/s Read Speed
SD Association Raises Max Capacity to 128 TB, Speed to 985 MB/s Using PCIe and NVMe
Lexar's 1TB SD card is the first you can actually buy
SanDisk showed off a 1TB SD prototype a couple of years ago, but the final product never made it to market. Lexar's Professional 633x line of SDHC and SDXC UHS-I cards, however, is now listed for sale in capacities from 16GB all the way up to the flagship 1TB. That card claims read speeds of up to 95MB/s and write speeds of 70MB/s, though it's only rated as V30/U3, which guarantees sustained write performance of 30MB/s.
(Not microSD.)
Related: Half a Terabyte in Your Smartphone? Yup. That's Possible Now
SD Association Raises Max Capacity to 128 TB, Speed to 985 MB/s Using PCIe and NVMe
Two companies have announced 1 terabyte microSDXC cards at Mobile World Congress 2019:
Micron's fingernail-sized card uses 96-layer 3D NAND configured as QLC (4bits/cell) storage and delivers up to 100MB/s read and 95MB/s write burst performance helped by a dynamically sized SLC cache.
WD's SanDisk's UHS-I microSDXC, meanwhile, boasts "up to" speeds of 160MB/s reads and 90MB/s writes.
[...] Random IO is up to 4,000 IOPS for reads and 2,000 for writes for both Micron and SanDisk's kit.
The SanDisk 1 TB microSD card will launch at $450 in April, or $200 for a 512 GB version.
The Secure Digital 3.01 specification defines a maximum capacity of 2 TB (2048 GB) for SDXC and microSDXC cards. The Secure Digital 7.0 specification introduced the Secure Digital Ultra Capacity (SDUC) format with a maximum capacity of 128 TB.
Also at Tom's Hardware, The Verge.
See also: 512 GB of UFS 3.0 Storage: Western Digital iNAND MC EU511
Previously: SanDisk Announces a 400 GB MicroSD Card
Half a Terabyte in Your Smartphone? Yup. That's Possible Now
Samsung Announces Production of 1 Terabyte Universal Flash Storage for Smartphones
SD Express will allow SD cards to reach read/write speeds of up to 985 MB/s. Now controllers for the standard are starting to appear:
Last year the SD Association published its Secure Digital 7.0 standard that defines SD Express cards. At this year's Computex, Realtek demonstrated one of the industry's first SD Express controllers for appropriate card readers. The RTS5261 chip already exists in silicon, so it is a matter of time before it is used for actual products.
[...] Realtek's RTS5261 supports everything mandated by the SD 7.0 specification and connects to hosts using a PCIe 3.0 interface. The controller can work with SDUC cards featuring capacities of up to 128 TB at sequential read/write speeds of up to 985 MB/s. Actual prototypes of SD Express cards from Western Digital/SanDisk seem to be slightly slower than that, yet still considerably faster when compared to existing SD UHS-II cards.
SD 7.1 extended Express speeds to microSD cards. Phison showed off a controller for capacities up to 512 GB:
Phison's PS5017 controller is compliant with the SD 7.1 specification, so it can be used both for SD Express and microSD Express cards. The chip supports various types of 3D TLC and 3D QLC NAND memory featuring ONFI or Toggle 2.0 interfaces, but total capacity is limited to 512 GB for some reason. Performance wise, the controller promises up to 900 MB/s sequential read speed as well as up to 500 MB/s sequential write speed, which is good enough considering types of memory that it will be used with.
It's only a matter of time before capacities hit 2 TB and above, and higher sustained read/write speeds would be appreciated.
Related: Western Digital Demos SD Card Using PCIe Gen 3 x1 Interface for 880 MB/s Read Speed
SD Association Raises Max Capacity to 128 TB, Speed to 985 MB/s Using PCIe and NVMe
Lexar Beats Others to Market with a 1 TB SD Card
Micron and SanDisk (Western Digital) Announce 1 TB MicroSD Cards (available)
(Score: 1, Troll) by Arik on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:24AM (16 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Thursday June 28 2018, @04:45AM (4 children)
But, heck, I'm posting this from a machine with 256MB RAM and only 40GB storage, what would I know.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Interesting) by coolgopher on Thursday June 28 2018, @07:33AM (3 children)
You jest, but have you tried deleting stuff from the "NoSQL" databases? At best it's done at a crawl, and in some cases it's not even possible.
Back in myyyy day... you could delete files by dialing your hard disk [liw.fi]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday June 28 2018, @10:28AM (2 children)
1998. "Linux the operating system kernel seems to me to be relatively finished"
heh.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday June 30 2018, @01:23AM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday June 30 2018, @11:18AM
Containers springs to mind as one major feature, and virtualisation in general.
The trouble is how do you define "new hardware", new hardware comes with lots of changes. Would IPv6 count? New file systems? Changes from ipchains to iptables to netfilter?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @06:06AM (9 children)
Backwards progress? That's called "Congress".
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday June 28 2018, @10:16AM (8 children)
I'm never quite sure where this idea that "con" is the opposite of "pro" came from.
The antonym of progress would be regress. The antonym of profressional would be amateur. There isn't really an antonym of convict or con artist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @10:49AM (2 children)
so you like to contradict people?
"white shirts go with black ties. conversely, white ties go with black shirts".
PS: you got me so confused, right now I don't even know if "contravention" is a word in english or not. (I'm being serious, nonnative english speaker here, in my native latin-based language it's quite clear that "contra" is a prefix that does mostly the same thing that "anti" does).
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:46PM (1 child)
"Contra" appears often in that sense in English words of similar lineage. But "con" is not always short for "contra.""Congress" is also derived from Latin, but not from "contra" rather from congredi or *congradi meaning to walk together (or "together to walk" if you want to preserve the Latin order.) Two other common associations for "con" in English are confidence game or confidence man, i.e. swindle, swindler; and convicted criminal.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday June 28 2018, @08:03PM
Two other common associations for "con"
Yes, when I see con, I think "con man", or "contrail", or maybe "conversation". "Congress" fits the first one I guess.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:24PM
That's what the words, by themselves, mean.
Obviously the conclusion that "progress" is the opposite of "congress" is a non-sequitur. But that's ok, because it is a joke.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:34PM
Antonym of Progress? Don't know where "con" came from that is the opposite of "pro". It's simple.
Progress is the opposite of Congress (i.e. the US government's Senate and House of Representatives)
See, it's fairly straight forward!! :)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Arik on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:49PM (2 children)
It is, if you select the right senses for each word at least, and it's commonly used that way in the form of "pro and con lists" for instance. In this usage it derives from latin "pro et contra" meaning "for and against."
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday June 28 2018, @06:13PM (1 child)
Oddly enough, I've just written a list of pros and cons without even thinking about it!
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday June 28 2018, @09:35PM
Con: I check this story when the comment count updates, and see more of this stupid grammar discussion continuing instead of memory card discussion.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MrNemesis on Thursday June 28 2018, @09:11AM
In this day and age, you should be thankful the new standard doesn't include a mandatorily inbuilt wifi transmitter to automatically upload the contents of your SD card to the secret police of the nearest nation-state (as well as google and facebook of course), as well as overlaying your pictures with Some Important Messages From Our Sponsors.
"To paraphrase Nietzsche, I have looked into the abyss and been sick in it."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @05:03AM (1 child)
But can you afford it?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 28 2018, @09:28AM
$/GB (or TB) will fall. You can get a 32 GB microSD for under $15.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @07:06AM (2 children)
I never thought I'd be doing this, but these TF cards store so much data that I am using my phone to backup the critical data files on my workstation.
The Android has an FTP server app you can download. Once I have the phone FTP server running, I then start the WS-FTPLE ( that old FTP client IPSWITCH had out there for years ) and transfer the filesets to or from my phone.
Almost as easy and not as fast as just plugging in a local USB stick, but it does give me knowledge that should I botch a fileset or worse, lose my system, at least I have the incremental backup since the the last disk image right on my phone. I never know when I may do something stupid, like visit the wrong website and get a piece of malware injected into my machine.
I still use something like the Western Digital Passports for keeping disk images on, but I only back up to those maybe once a month or so. And before and after any major system change.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @10:51AM (1 child)
on the other hand, if you drop your phone on the bus or something, suddenly all your data are belonging to someone else.
don't get me wrong, redundancy is a good thing, but usually your computer should be safer than your phone...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @11:30AM
Whoever picks up your phone will probably just wipe it and sell it on. But if you are concerned about data security, you can encrypt the files before sending them to your phone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @01:51PM (1 child)
... I'm golden
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:47PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital#Transfer_modes [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]