Phison is the First to Ship the New PCIe SD Express Card (SD 7.0)

Phison Electronics Corp, a global leader in NAND Flash controllers, integrated circuits, and storage solutions, announced today that it will be the first to ship the new PCIe interface SD card, SD Express 7.0. The card will start shipping in March, 2021 and will come in a 256GB and a 512GB offering.

SD Express (SD 7.0) is the first memory card to apply a PCIe interface in an SD interface compatible with all the existing built-in SD slots. This innovation takes the SD Express 7.0 memory card to another performance level, closer to CF Express type A and UFS card, and is three times faster than UHS-II, the fastest card in the current removable device market.

SD Express cards can be considered a traditional UHS-I memory card with the PCIe interface and NVMe protocol. PCIe and NVMe are known worldwide for their high bandwidth and low latency storage capabilities. In anticipation of the next generation of high-performance mobile computing requirements, adding both architectures to SD Express delivers faster access to data files than the various legacy SD platforms.

SD Express cards can achieve speeds of up to 870MB/s with PCIe Gen3x1 supporting content applications and data generated by highly demanding system architectures.

Read: SD 7.0 Express - Making SD Bigger and Faster

This new protocol allows SD Express memory cards to serve as removable solid-state drives (SSD). The speeds delivered by SD Express are perfectly suited to high-resolution video and image applications. These include super-slow-motion video, RAW continuous burst mode photography, 8K video capture, 360-degree video. SD Express is also perfect for UHD gaming systems, multi-channel Internet-Of-Things (IoT) devices, high-speed data backups, and numerous automotive storage needs, including temporary storage for 5G data transfers.

K.S. Pua, Chairman and CEO of Phison, said, “SD cards and microSD cards have become saturated in the consumer and retail markets, but applications in other specialty markets continue to grow. Medical applications, digital surveillance applications, and content creator markets all require SD and microSD cards with unique features. Phison’s strength is to provide corresponding customized solutions for different storage markets to meet these needs.”

Phison, a board member of the SD Association, is a recognized leader in PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD development, especially with its ability to leverage PCIe NVMe to SD cards, and is one of the few companies to manufacture SD Express cards.

“This latest innovative development only further enhances our market and industry leadership,” said C.S. Ma, CTO of Phison. “SD Express 7.0 is designed to meet the demand of high-speed mobile storage devices for the high-end imaging market.”

About Phison
Phison Electronics Corp. (TPEX:8299) is a global leader in NAND Flash controller IC and storage solutions. We provide a variety of services from controller design, system integration, IP licensing to total turnkey solutions, covering applications across SSD (PCIe/SATA/PATA), eMMC, UFS, SD and USB interfaces, reaching out to consumer, industrial and enterprise markets. As an active member of industry associations, Phison is on the Board of Directors for SDA, ONFI, UFSA and a contributor for JEDEC, PCI-SIG, MIPI, NVMe and IEEE-SA.