A Short Guide on Memory Cards

Today, advancements in technology have given us several options to communicate and entertain ourselves. Devices such as tablets, phones, and cameras allow us to preserve our memories without utilising any physical space. Sometimes, the storage in these devices is not enough, and this is where memory cards come in.

There are many different memory card types, which makes choosing one difficult. The price of a Micro SD memory card is based on the features it offers. Let’s take a look at them:

 

What is a Memory Card?

A memory card is a small storage device that stores digital media files. such as music, videos, and photos. The chart below lists down the most common memory card formats:

#	Memory Card Name	Abbreviation	Dimensions (WxLxH)
1	Secure Digital	SD	24.0 x 32.0 x 2.1mm
2	Secure Digital High Capacity	SDHC	24.0 x 32.0 x 2.1mm
3	Secure Digital Extended Capacity	SDXC	24.0 x 32.0 x 2.1mm
4	Micro SD / micro SDHC / micro SDXC	Micro SD / Micro SDHC / micro SDXC	11.0 x 15.0 x 1.0mm
5	Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO	MS	50.0 x 21.5 x 2.8mm
6	Memory Stick Duo / PRO Duo / PRO-HG Duo	MSD / MSPD / MSPDX	20.0 x 31.0 x 1.6mm
7	CompactFlash Type I	CF-I	42.8 x 36.4 x 3.3mm
8	CompactFlash Type II	CF-II	42.8 x 36.4 x 5.0mm
9	CFast	CFast	42.8 x 36.4 x 3.6mm
10	XQD	XQD	38.5 x 29.8 x 3.8mm
11	CFexpress	CFexpress	38.5 x 29.8 x 3.8mm

 

Memory Card Sizes

In the start, a MicroSD memory card came only in megabytes (MBs). Today, different types are available in gigabytes (GBs) and terabytes (TBs).

Memory Card Speeds

SD Memory Card Speed Classes

Speed Class refers to the writing speed provided by a memory card. Then, there’s bus speed (UHS), which shows a card’s theoretical maximum it can offer over the bus.

The following chart lists down the most common types of memory card formats summarises bus interfaces and their bus speeds:

Bus Interface	Compatible Memory Cards	Maximum Bus Speed
High Speed	SD, SDHC, SDXC	25 MB/sec
UHS-I	SDHC, SDXC	104 MB/sec
UHS-II	SDHC, SDXC	312 MB/sec
UHS-III	SDHC, SDXC	624 MB/sec

 

Keep in mind that based on your bus speed, your memory card should be compatible with a memory reader with the same interface.

SD memory cards are also marked with speed classes, which are as follows:

Components of a Memory Card

1.      Maximum Read Speed – The read speed is in MBs, and for this card, it is 300 MB/s.

2.      Type of SD Memory Card – The memory card is SDXC.

3.      UHS Bus Speed – The Roman numeral on the right is the UHS number. If it’s a UHS-I card, the number will be I. In this case, it’s a UHS-II card.

4.      SD Speed Class – The speed class of this memory card is 10MB/sec.

5.      UHS Speed Class – The UHS speed class of this memory card is 30 MB/sec, which is indicated by the number 3.

6.      Memory Card Capacity – The capacity of this memory card is 128 GB.

MicroSD Trend Roundup

With rising market demand and customer expectations, the SDA finally introduced the microSD SD7.1 that offers high performance for mobile computing, gaming, and more. SDA even published a guide to help developers understand the new specifications, which included PCIe/NVMe interface’s integration while maintaining backward compatibility.

Due to COVID-19, people have been documenting every moment of their lives on social media. The traffic of photos and videos has gone so high that Google Photos is no longer backing up the data. Despite the use of streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney people are still downloading movies and TV shows to their devices. Hence, the demand for more storage is still being driven up.

Today, 4K is a big deal, but with the trending higher resolution demands more, which means they will readily embrace 8K; this is what the MicroSD Express offers. With access to this memory card, people will be able to load and share media files in a couple of seconds. Mobiles will be able to film videos in Super Slow-Mo at 30fps and in 360 degrees. The memory card will truly be a game-changer as it will offer gamers more than 32GB of space with double the transfer speeds.