The next generation of SD Express memory cards are about to smoke the current generation, providing roughly quadruple the speed.

Current SD cards, based on the SD 7.0 or 7.1 specification, have a maximum transfer speed of 985 megabytes per second. Under the announced SD 8.0 specification, that will jump to nearly 4 gigabytes per second, thanks to its use of the PCI Express® (PCIe®) 4.0 specification.

The announcement, made by the SD Association, could result in a whole new generation of mobile storage devices offering speeds that compete with SSDs.

“SD Express’ use of even faster PCIe and NVMe architectures to deliver faster transfer speeds creates more opportunities for devices to use SD memory cards,” said Mats Larsson, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource. “This combination of trusted and well- known technologies makes it easier for future product designs to leverage the benefits of removable storage in new ways.”

“By dramatically increasing the speeds for SD Express we’re giving device manufacturers and system developers more storage choices,” said Hiroyuki Sakamoto, SDA president. “SD 8.0 may open even more opportunities for extra high performance solutions using removable memory cards.”

The SD Association’s announcement is exciting news for individuals and organizations that rely on removable media. Even those that don’t may find new uses for SD cards at those speeds.