SDHC to boost SD capacities, befuddle consumers
By Paul Miller 
posted January 6th 2006 10:15AM
posted January 6th 2006 10:15AM
Yeah,
we're just as excited as you about a new memory card format, and really can't wait for all the confusion and accessory
purchasing that it will entail, but the SD Card Association seems to think it's for the betterment of humanity, and we
have to agree that the current 2GB capacity wall that most SD cards are hitting is starting to feel a tad constraining.
So enter the SDHC (SD High Capacity) that promises to break the 2GB quasi-barrier, along with bringing some new ways to
"protect" the content that is in search of more memory capacity, namely DRMed video and music. They call the
protection tech specs SD-Audio, SD-Video, and SD-Binding (for phone content) and they also promise a minimum SD Speed
Class Rating that matches MPEG-2 video so device manufacturers can be sure of performance for card applications. The
Association says they should finalize the full SDHC spec early this year, and there's no word on when they'll start
rolling out the cards, but we're sure it won't be long until we're swimming in yet another card format.
Ridiculous. How many varying and incompatible formats can the market support? I bet soon hereafter, other manufactures will follow suit and there will be 50 additional formats to drown in.
I take it that SDHC isn't compatible with bog standard SD devices then?
Everyone, stop complaining. The SDA has been remarkably effective at maintaining backward (and to some extent, forward) compatibility in their specifications. SD, miniSD, and microSD are all pin-compatible for both storage and IO. SDHC seems to be like SDIO... not so much a brand new spec as a list of additional special-purpose requirements on top of SD. I'm sure that all the cards will be usable in existing devices, and that it generally won't even matter whether you use standard or High Capacity.
I actually own a pair of 4GB SD cards and use them in my cameras.
You know, there are so many memory card formats out there already that nearly every device has it's own format anyway. Have a camera with CF, a PDA with SD, a phone with transflash, ad nauseam. With so many standards, it would ALMOST be better if every brand of device had it's own proprietary format just so you'd know what to freakin' expect.
Seriously though, if SDHC works in older readers (unlike Memory Stick Pro), this won't be that big of a deal.