Aside from the unveiling of 1TB microSD cards, another interesting development to the flash card industry has took place at MWC 2019 as well. Over there, the SD Association has announced a new microSD format called MicroSD Express.
Made possible through the integration of PCIe 3.1 and NVMe v1.3 specifications, the new format promises read speeds of up to 985MB/s which is within the realms of solid state drive. This announcement is a follow up to the larger sized SD Express, announced in the middle of last year.
The new microSD Express cards have the legacy microSD interface for backward compatibility with older devices, albeit at a slower speed. As a comparison, the recently announced SanDisk and Micron 1TB microSD cards max out at 160MB/s and 100MB/s read speeds respectively. The new format is roughly seven times faster than the fastest microSD card on the market currently.
For now, no manufacturers have yet to announce the creation of microSD Express or SD Express cards as well as supported accessories. It is only a matter of time anyway before we see them in the market, now that the foundation has been defined.
(Source: Business Wire (SD Association), The Verge)
