Secure Digital eXtended Capacity

Secure Digital eXtended Capacity (SDXC) cards are provided by the SD Association. The flash-memory cards are designed to dramatically boost storage capacity over previous generation Secure Digital (SD) cards. Unveiled at CES 2009, the ultimate goal for SDXC is to offer a card that can store a huge 2 terabytes of storage capacity, or around 2,000GB, in about five years time. The consortium that includes players in the industry like SanDisk and Hewlett-Packard, invites you to imagine storing up to 100 High-definition movies on a memory card about the size of a stamp, and being able to access that content easily with a variety of consumer electronics products.

Until then, SDXC cards will be released with increasing storage capabilities until the 2TB goal is reached, with the first expected late in 2009, offering 64GB storage. SD cards currently grip about 80 percent of the memory card market, according to the consortium (January 2009). It estimates that a 2TB SDXC card could hold up to 100 HD movies, 480 hours of professional-quality audio content, or 136,000 "fine-mode" photos.

Another new feature of SDXC increases SD interface read/write speeds up to 104 MB per second in 2009 with a road map to 300 MB per second. Faster bus speeds will enable professional-level recording in compact consumer camcorders and increase the number of frames shot in a second with SDXC cameras.