SDXC memory cards promise 2TB of storage, 300MBps transfer

Usually, we poo-poo any new memory card format what with the plethora of options available today. But when a new itty bitty card is announced with a ridiculous 2TB (2 terabyte!) maximum capacity (theoretical), well, we're willing to make the jump to a new format. SDXC (SD eXtended Capacity) relies upon Microsoft's exFAT file system and stores more than 4,000 RAW images, 100 HD movies, or 60 hours of HD recording with a transfer rate of up to 300MBps. The first batch of retail cards will hit before March with read/write speeds up to 104MBps in unknown capacities, though certainly less than 2TB on day one.

[霽月瀛台 @ Jan 7th 2009 11:01AM]

omg, can we use any adapter to use is as a hdd?

[zioncat @ Jan 7th 2009 11:21AM]

Seriously why even bother asking a question like that. Clearly if this product was on the market for to buy right now it would be extremly expensive.

[Arkenklo @ Jan 7th 2009 11:52AM]

When these cards reach 2 TB regular harddrives will be atleast 25x larger, just like they are now.

[Cody @ Jan 7th 2009 5:57PM]

I don't know about using it as an hard drive but when it comes out I'll definitely use it for storage, as long as it's not up in the thousand dollar range.

[melloncollie @ Jan 7th 2009 11:01AM]

That's amazing. If it ever does get to a 2TB size.

[RichardBronosky @ Jan 7th 2009 12:43PM]

Getting 1GB on something that small is amazing.

[Dan Fruzzetti @ Jan 7th 2009 10:44PM]

By the time YOU can buy it in a store, it will have become a whole lot less amazing.

[htd @ Jan 7th 2009 11:02AM]

any device compatible with this card yet? some can finally carry all their p0rn0 with them now

[aahatimy @ Jan 7th 2009 11:21AM]

Except for Chuck Norris of course.

[aahatimy @ Jan 7th 2009 11:22AM]

Didn't realise it at first but why did you "porn" like that?

[Eli Gundry @ Jan 7th 2009 9:01PM]

More like all the porn!

[greg @ Jan 7th 2009 11:02AM]

O.O!!!! what will the capacity of the first set of cards be? And how reliable are they? ... couple this be my new backup "drive"

[greg @ Jan 7th 2009 11:03AM]

oh didn't read the last sentence. guess I was too excited. But yea, sign me up for the first batch of 1tb and 2 tb cards

[Blacksheep @ Jan 7th 2009 11:02AM]

Holy Sh**! I can't believe the leap is going from 32 GB to 2TB on these things by March! I can back up every HD in my house on an SD card, that just blows my mind.

[David Hildreth @ Jan 7th 2009 11:37AM]

They won't be 2TB for a few years.

[Ogo @ Jan 7th 2009 12:06PM]

They will likely start at 32GB and work the way up to 2TB. Typically the past predicts the future.... when we switched from SD to SDHC did we have 32GB the theoretical maximum of SDHC.

[Roadrunner @ Jan 7th 2009 12:55PM]

They aren't going from 32GB to 2TB in march. The new format is coming in march. No doubt, the first cards will be no where near 2TB at launch. It's like when SDHC launched. Cards weren't released on launch day in 32GB sizes.

[Precurse @ Jan 7th 2009 2:05PM]

@Ogo

Sorry, SDHC's THEORETICAL capacity is truly 2TB as well.. However, the SD association artificially limit it to 32GB in the specs. You can make a card, albeit not following the standard, that is >32GB.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card#SDHC

[bethel03 @ Jan 7th 2009 11:03AM]

Are there only SDXC devices that go along with this? Or will they work in a SDHC rated device?

[rock99rock @ Jan 7th 2009 11:15AM]

I believe that since the card is based of a newer file system, sdhc-ready devices will not be able to read them.

[Hel @ Jan 7th 2009 12:35PM]

I'm sure someone already beat me to it, but the hardware in SD card readers (some of the ones that don't officially support SDHC even, like the one in the Wii) are electrically capable of reading cards up to the 2TB mark. They keep changing the filesystem on them, so firmware upgrades will be necessary. I'm not sure if current readers will be able to hit the 300MB/s speed mark they've set, but firmware upgrades should allow an SDHC reader to read all 2TB of these.

[Sisyphus @ Jan 7th 2009 11:04AM]

That is incredible -- but the use will be limited for actual recording devices that are limited by a much (much) shorter battery life.

If it really does reach 2TB, that will be AMAZING for playback devices that allow expandable storage. Really, if they can get something the size of SD cards to hold 2 TB of info, we ought to have much cheaper PMPs featuring hot-swappable storage rather than fixed drives -- even 1/4th of that size is bigger than anything I can think of on the market!

[JeffO @ Jan 7th 2009 2:01PM]

Exactly! If these tiny babies can hold as much as 2TB, then what if you took the next step and made a tiny RAID 5 (or whatever) unit with hot-swap SD cards?
Atom chips currently suck, but what about in a couple of years?
Been shopping for an i7 motherboard and it seems RAID 5 and 10 are now common stock features of the new crop of motherboards.
Won't be long and we "could" have screamin' fast, fault-tolerant, mobile computers that fit in the palm of your hand or in your pocket.

[RichardBronosky @ Jan 7th 2009 1:01PM]

The need for larger storage is independent of battery life. This solves the problem of, "I forgot to empty off my card." The battery problem really only effect those who a) wanted to shoot several hours of continuous video b) fail to buy/recharge extra batteries. I run into storage limitations much more often than battery limitations thanks to charging docking stations. Uploading into Lightroom requires a lot more effort than charging.

[mcg @ Jan 7th 2009 11:05AM]

Bah, you guys are being suckered in by the marketing hype. I am sure the 2TB number simply refers to the size of the address space. It's a theoretical maximum, yes. But no you are not going to see a 2TB SDXC card any time soon.

[Jake Tobak @ Jan 7th 2009 11:14AM]

Probably true, but still... it can't hurt to DREAM!

[LloydChiro @ Jan 7th 2009 11:51AM]

Marketing hype is the sole reason why I visit this site sixteen times a day. It's addicting.

[Richard @ Jan 7th 2009 4:21PM]

640K ought to be enough for anybody...

I'm 17 and remember when flash memory size was measured in megabytes! Bring me my 2^41 1's and 0's on a pretty little plastic chip!

[Ethan @ Jan 7th 2009 11:05AM]

Gotta be 64GB or above, otherwise they wouldn't make a fuss with a new standard. I know camera shops have just got used to telling customers what cards their camera supports.

[absinthe party @ Jan 7th 2009 11:07AM]

Flickr, beware! Once these make their way into cameras and trickle down to the teenage girl crowd, your servers are belong to them.

[Shoeboy @ Jan 7th 2009 12:54PM]

what you say!?!?
/oblig

[andres @ Jan 7th 2009 8:27PM]

too early

http://xkcd.com/286/

[sam @ Jan 7th 2009 11:11AM]

cant wait to see benchmarks, we could use 2 of these in raid0 for an ssd drive:)

[Precurse @ Jan 7th 2009 11:14AM]

SDHC has a theoretical maximum address capability of 2TB already, however their class (2,4,6) system really sucks. Why must they always change to a new format when they already have the technology to reuse the current stuff? Licensing?

[Poom @ Jan 7th 2009 1:07PM]

Thank god! I was so surprised and worried that nobody realizes this! I don't get the point of promoting the theoretical max capacity when it's the same as SDHC.

[MarbleMind @ Jan 7th 2009 11:15AM]

This is really, really nice. It might very well relieve the external HDD as a backup medium in quite some cases, specifically if the user intends to continually fils up the available storage without altering/deleting previously written data and simply buys a new drive as soon as the old one is full, hence wouldn't be likely to hit the write-cycle limit on a solid state drive.

[Skorpius @ Jan 7th 2009 11:17AM]

Please, please, please, be true so we can move people off of shitty lossy files.

[NoAndThen @ Jan 7th 2009 12:47PM]

Amen to that! Todays pmps are useless when trying to have a good flac library with you.

[nanobis @ Jan 7th 2009 11:17AM]

i bet that they wont be cheap at 2TB

[Billy Gun @ Jan 7th 2009 11:24AM]

have a TB tiny pendrive is my dream, but I tought I would only see one in 2020... hahhahahhaha

[twinpeaked @ Jan 7th 2009 12:31PM]

We seem to be getting doublings in flash memory every 8 months or so these days, that would denote a 2TB sd card in 4 years time (6 doublings). As for your 1TB flash drive, 64gb versions are available today (although they are expensive), and on that basis your could have one in your hand in little over two and a half years

I hope your dream comes true soon, it's a shared one

twinpeaked

[Nick J @ Jan 7th 2009 11:24AM]

...so I take the the "X" in SDXC stands for "X-Treme!!!1!" ?...

[Jake Tobak @ Jan 7th 2009 11:29AM]

Super Duper Xtreme Card!

[fieldcar @ Jan 7th 2009 11:35AM]

Secure Digital Xtreme Capacity

[absinthe party @ Jan 7th 2009 11:47AM]

@ fieldcar

Way to ruin everyone's fun. I bet you tell little kids that Santa isn't real, too.

[Mike @ Jan 7th 2009 11:47AM]

Super Duper Xtreeeme Card To the Maxxx! (internal name) :P

[BJ is Gooder @ Jan 7th 2009 12:01PM]

Super Donkey Xylophone Card!!!

(This will probably be the name when advertised in Japan). Plus I can never think of another work with an 'x' that's not xylophone...

[fieldcar @ Jan 7th 2009 12:20PM]

Santa's not real? "tear"

[Mike @ Jan 7th 2009 11:48AM]

This may be a dumb question, but why bother with a FAT variant? Why not simply use NFTS or something else that's probably more widely adopted than FAT?

[Jake Tobak @ Jan 7th 2009 11:59AM]

Cause FAT is a classic and the classics never go out of style.