Pretec unveils world's first 32GB SDXC card

Leonard Goh | Mar 05, 2009

(Credit: Pretec)

A few days ago, flash memory maker Pretec announced the world's first 666x speed CompactFlash card at the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) tradeshow taking place now in Las Vegas. But the showstopper has to be the unveiling of the world's first 32GB SDXC card, which is the next iteration of the SD card format.

The 32GB SDXC (where XC stands for eXtended Capacity) media has a current write speed of 50MB/s, which is much faster than the speediest SDHC card now. Pretec also said there are plans to bump up the speed of the SDXC card format to 300MB/s in the future.

The maximum capacity of an SDXC card is 2TB, whereas an SDHC card is capped at 32GB. However, there is a catch. The SDXC cards are not backward-compatible with older SD/SDHC-compliant devices. This is because the new media uses the exFAT file system as opposed to FAT32, which is utilized in current SD/SDHC format media.

Given that full-HD movie recording is becoming a hot trend in the imaging industry, consumers will start to demand for higher-capacity memory media. This is where SDXC cards will come into play. However the issue of compatibility leaves much to be desired. We hope there will be technological advancements made in this aspect to enable the new card format to be used in older devices.

According to Pretec, there are currently no gadgets that accept SDXC cards, so the company is holding back its release. The flash memory maker also didn't give any indication when it will start selling the new media or how much the SDXC cards will cost. But at the Las Vegas-based Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, we heard from the SD Association that SDXC cards are scheduled to launch later this year or early 2010. We guess that's when the first SDXC-compatible devices will be released, too.

Filed under: Digital Cameras
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Guwahati

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Guwahati says...
Ah how soon things change........now one has to think of changing a gadget just to use a high capacity card.......

Mar 07, 2009 20:49

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ahicks

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ahicks says...
The SDXC specification was released to members on April 14, 2009. There are no legitimate SDXC memory cards or host products on the market prior to this date.

SDXC memory cards are for capacities above 32 gigabytes; therefore the first SDXC memory cards will offer 64 gigabyte of storage.

The Association expects a variety of companies to claim SDXC capability.Â To help ensure you are purchasing legitimate products meeting SD interoperability and performance standards, we recommend that you confirm any company's claims by verifying membership in the SD Association by visiting: www.sdcard.org...

Jun 09, 2009 23:54

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