As people strive to stay on top of technological advancements and use technology to improve lives and businesses, they need to be able to store, access, manage and share enormous amounts of data. For many of these people, the ideal portable data storage device is the SD Express or microSD Express card.<\/p>\n
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What are SD\/microSD Express cards?<\/h3>\n
SD Express cards are flash-based memory cards that were first created under the SD Association<\/a> in 2018. Essentially, they were based on well-known SD memory cards\u2014but were fitted with PCIe interfaces for faster and more efficient data transfer. Today\u2019s SD Express cards can deliver performance of up to 4 GB\/s<\/a>, which is at least eight times faster than the fastest legacy memory card. The cards are also backward-compatible with existing legacy memory card hosts (though you might lose some performance when running them in legacy hosts).<\/p>\n Recently, the industry has begun to see some evolution in microSD Express cards, which are the same as SD Express cards, just in a smaller footprint. This makes them ideal for small devices such as smartphones, IoT sensors, drones and so on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to research by Trend Force, SD and microSD cards are currently the most commonly used removable memory storage in the world. In fact, the next most popular form factor, the USB drive, ships just 30% of the total yearly volume of SD and microSD cards.<\/p>\n SD and microSD memory cards are familiar and common among both consumers and businesses. Transferring data with standard SD and microSD cards was simple (and rather slow), but as technology advanced, the need for faster transfers and the volume of data being transferred also increased. For example, users of home security in the past might have had just one or two security cameras at important corners of the house. But now, with the help of IoT, they can have double or triple the number of cameras\u2014and connect all of those cameras to the same central computer or even to a user\u2019s smartphone.<\/p>\n Another example is the increased need for digital memory in cars. With the advancement of electric and smart cars, memory cards became necessary not only for driving recorders, but also for in-vehicle infotainment systems and GPS as well.<\/p>\n To meet the increasing demands of portable high-speed data, the SD Association upgraded standard SD and microSD cards with a PCIe interface and called them Express. For host designers, it packs high PCIe performance in a small package that is extremely easy to design the host around. For end users, it is a direct upgrade of current legacy SD and microSD cards, plus they can be used with the latest tech equipment and have a mature ecosystem. It is a win-win situation for both sides.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The most obvious benefit of SD Express and microSD Express cards is the enhanced performance. However, \u201cSD Express is not just about faster data transfer,\u201d said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, president of the SD Association, in a recent article<\/a>, \u201c\u2014it\u2019s about building a bridge to the future.\u201d SD Express and microSD Express cards enable the next generation of devices that need much larger storage capacities and higher performance. With SD Express technology, manufacturers can ensure that their products can maximize the benefits of 5G, IoT, AI, machine learning, virtual reality and many other advanced technologies.<\/p>\n The backwards compatibility of SD Express is also highy beneficial. When users need to collect data using increasingly high-tech, high-performance devices, they can use an advanced SD Express or microSD Express card. Consider that interaction an \u201cinput station,\u201d where the majority of data writing or recording to the memory device occurs. After data has been collected, some users may need to work on the data that was recorded, such as editing raw video footage. When they extract the recorded data either at home or in the office, they could do it at a \u201cworkstation\u201d that still uses standard SD or microSD memory. The data inside the SD Express or microSD Express cards is still easily extractable by legacy hosts. Essentially, SD\/microSD Express cards become the bridge for users to interact with high-tech devices seamlessly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\nThe evolution of SD Express technology<\/h3>\n
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<\/a>The benefits of using SD Express and microSD Express cards<\/h3>\n
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