Welcome to the New Era
of High-Speed Data Transmission

In 2000, leading NAND storage manufacturers worldwide teamed up to form the SD Association (SDA). Since then, the organization has developed and promoted industry-leading memory card standards.

As video and photo quality advanced significantly over the decades, the SDA has continued to create new and more rigorous standards to keep up, including parameters for the SD Express Communication Interface in 2018.

Today’s laptops widely support the SD Express Interface, and Phison is proud to be the very first supplier to provide SD Express storage products, beginning in 2021. The increased data transmission speed through SD Express and UHS-II means greatly improved performance to end users and is also enabling a whole new world of applications.

Read: SD 7.0 Express - Making SD Bigger and Faster

With any new technology comes new challenges. Emerging applications, such as in-vehicle machines or monitors, are creating a demand for higher-speed interfaces and data transmission for removable storage devices. To avoid the cost and downtime of having to frequently replace storage devices, developers of these specialized applications need to be able to trust that the storage cards they use meet at least minimum requirements. They also need to standardize the devices in order to ensure host system compatibility.

SDA launches new verification program for SD Express and UHS-II products

To provide consumers and businesses with higher confidence that SD Express and UHS-II products meet the latest interface and compatibility standards, the SDA recently announced its SD Express/UHS-II Verification Program (SVP). The program verifies the electronic interfaces of association members’ UHS-II and SD Express card, host, and ancillary products, which then receive a Verified Product designation on the SDA website.

The verification program represents a significant step forward from previous certification measures. In the past, NAND flash device manufacturers guaranteed the quality of their products through self-certification defined by SDA’s specifications. The SDA provided the tools and equipment list used in the self-certification process and provided them to manufacturers. The association also verified product quality through random inspections, which could occur at different points in the supply chain, such as customs or at retail stores.

For the costly and high-performance SD Express cards, however, the existing quality certification was insufficient. The SDA decided to change the formal verification process to prevent serious conflicts among manufacturers in relation to quality standards and compatibility concerns.

“SD Express delivers the fastest bus performance for a growing number of devices and UHS-II provides the industry with another solid choice for moving speed-sensitive data quickly,” said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, SDA president. “SVP increases confidence among consumers and businesses that products using SD Express or UHS-II will meet interface standards and deliver the performance defined by our industry-leading specifications.”

Phison awarded world’s first SVP-verified SD Express solution

In just two months, between September and November 2021, Phison successfully attained the SVP verification for its SD Express and UHS-II products—and became the first manufacturer to do so.

This verification is significant to Phison and its partners and customers because it guarantees that Phison SD Express and UHS-II products adhere to the highest industry-quality standards, are compatible with and have passed platform tests for host systems currently on the market and also those to be released in the near future. What the verification means to Phison customers is that choosing Phison SD memory card products will guarantee the quality and performance of their products.

This isn’t the first time Phison has led the industry. The manufacturer is also the world’s first company to ship the first generation of PCIe Gen4x4 SSD Controllers, and has announced that it plans to ship its PCIe Gen5 Controller in 2022.

Over the years, Phison has been leading the charge in advancing storage technologies. It also currently provides PCIe 5.0 Re-Driver and Re-Timer IC solutions, which will support a new era of PCIe Gen5 system platforms through collaboration with worldwide companies of CPU, GPU, motherboards, SSD brands, system integration and other partners.