Lexar Announces the Development of SD Express Memory Cards

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Lexar has announced that it is actively developing SD Express memory cards that use PCI Express (PCIe 4.0) and will more than triple the speeds of current UHS-II cards.

According to a press release, Lexar says that it is actively developing both regular SD Express as well as microSD Express memory cards. Its SD Express cards will have a capacity of up to 512 GB while its microSD Express will cap out at 256 GB. And the new Lexar SD Express cards will offer write speeds of up to 410MB/sec and read speeds of up to 824MB/sec. This falls quite shy of 4GB/sec, and slower than most CFexpress cards the market today.

Press Release:

LEXAR ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT OF SD EXPRESS MEMORY CARDS

San Jose, USA, June 23, 2021– Lexar, a leading global brand of memory solutions, is proud to announce the development of SD Express memory cards.

Lexar SD Express memory cards will leverage the PCI Express® (PCIe®) 4.0 specification delivering a maximum data transfer rate of nearly four gigabytes per second (GB/s). Able to transfer data up three times faster than the fastest UHS-II SD card available today1, SD Express has a theoretical max read speed of up to 985MB/s. These cards will also leverage the NVMe Express™ (NVMe™) protocol and are backward compatible.

Lexar SD Express memory cards are made to meet the increasing demands of users for moving large amounts of data including 8K video capture and playback, RAW continuous burst mode, 360-degree cameras and videos, and more data-intense applications and workloads.

Lexar will feature two technologies, SD Express and microSD Express memory cards. SD Express will become available in capacity options up to 512GB, and microSD Express with capacity options to 256GB.

Lexar SD Express and microSD Express memory cards will feature speeds of up to 824MB/s Read, and 410MB/s1 Write, respectfully. Lexar is currently working with manufacturers of relevant host devices as part of its early development and plans to launch in 2022.

“We are excited to announce the development of SD Express memory cards, which use the PCle 3.0 interface, marking an innovation in memory card technology. In the future, we will be able to use Lexar SD Express memory cards in many data-intense applications including videography, photography, 360-degree applications, and automobile storage. This will bring users to a higher-performance experience,” says Jordan Zhong, Vice President of Lexar.

Lexar SD Express memory cards will be built with the Silicon Motion’s SM 2708 controller. “Many of the latest high-end cameras and mobile phones are capable of recording video in 8K and require a fast transfer rate. With the SM2708 controller now supporting the SD 8.0 specification which offers more than triple the throughput, applications such as 8K video capture, RAW photo capture, multi-channel IOT devices, multi-processing automotive storage and other applications requiring ultra-high data speeds are now possible,” says Nelson Duann, Silicon Motion’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and R&D.

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Via: CanonRumors