Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., (TAEC) and its parent, Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba), recently announced that they are launching two new series of SD Cards that they claim will offer higher-level data transfer rates and better read-write performance. The “high-speed series” will offer a maximum data transfer rate of 5-megabytes (MB) per second while the “ultra high-speed series” will push transfer rates to as high as 20MB per second, double the rate of any other previous Toshiba-brand SD Cards. Both series will be rolled out this autumn, in Japan in October and globally in November.
Earlier this year, the SD Card Association along with Toshiba introduced the SD Speed Class, defining three minimum data transfer rates for next generation SD Cards: Class 2 supports a minimum data transfer rate of 2MB per second; Class 4 supports 4MB per second; and Class 6 6MB per second. Toshiba is first in the industry to announce the launch of Class 6 products.
Both the high-speed series Speed Class 4 SD Cards and ultra high-speed series Speed Class 6 SD Cards will be made available in 512MB, 1GB and 2GB capacities. Toshiba tells us that the SD Speed Class, “will be clearly stated on the card and its packaging, allowing users to select the card that makers specify for use with their digital products. Applications will include video recording with high performance digital cameras.”
Toshiba expects Speed Class to become an integral part of SD card specifications, and to prove popular with users by indicating which Speed Class SD Card is best matched with a particular product. “Classifying standards for transfer rates will also assure that SD Cards continues to evolve to meet new market demands, such as high-speed capacity storage in support of digital video. As a leader in SD Card technology and production, Toshiba decided to promote these moves by leading the industry in launching Speed Class 6 SD Cards, and will now gradually transition its SD Card production to the new cards,” the company said in a statement.
