Sd association card formatter windows#

The longevity of the supply plays a crucial role in the vendor selection process.Īnother key consideration is SD memory card customization to suit the specific application’s storage usage model based on the nature of the NAND flash process technology – for example, whether the card is based on SLC (single-level cell), MLC (multi-level cell), TLC (triple-level cell) or another variant of NAND.Įxamples of features from older SD standards that are still relevant and required include: Sample markets where older SD memory cards are still popularįurthermore, as deployment to the field could last five to 15 years, these SD memory cards’ bill of materials (BOM) is expected to be maintained over this period of time, or at the very least, the manufacturer should have controlled management of its supply base.

For example, an SD memory card might be used as a boot device with a small amount of data logs for a wireless base station in the high mountains or the middle of the desert. These markets do not need terabytes of storage space a few GB or even 512 MB or lower can satisfy their data storage needs. Instead, industrial and embedded markets such as factory automation, enterprise mobility, transportation, telecom/networking, healthcare and industrial IoT require SD memory cards to be rugged, highly stable data storage devices, capable of enduring harsh environmental conditions, such as extreme temperatures ranging from -40° C to 85° C.

Sd association card formatter windows#

There are still use cases, however, that don’t need these bells and whistles – such as applications in industrial segments that run on variants of Linux or Windows Embedded OS, or Real-Time OS (RTOS) such as WindRiver VxWorks and QNX. Consumers, meanwhile, demand the lowest cost per gigabyte. Other applications need cards with large amounts of data storage, such as those storing 360-degree video. Some applications, like 4K/8K video, require SD memory cards with blazing-fast transfer speed for highest bandwidth and throughput. The incredible speed at which SD standards evolve is nothing short of amazing – in fact, the SD Association just announced the latest version: 5.0, with new Video Speed Classes to satisfy the latest 4K/8K Ultra HD video, 360-degree video and multi-file recording demands.īut even though the consumer electronics and digital imaging markets drive the leading edge of SD technology innovations, there remains a strong and healthy demand for older generations of SD memory cards, namely SD or SDHC memory cards varying in capacity from 128 MB up to 8 GB. We started with the initial SD version 1.0, using FAT16 and with storage capacity up to 2 GB then on to SD v2.0 (SDHC), using FAT32 and with storage capacity up to 32 GB and now to today’s v3.0 (SDXC) using ex-FAT and with a massive storage capacity of up to 2 TB. Over the years, SD technology innovations have accelerated to keep up with market demands for ever-increasing storage space and faster speeds, all at a reasonable cost.

Today, more than a billion SD memory cards are being manufactured and sold around the world every year they have truly become the de facto standard for removable storage. Sixteen years in human time may sound short, but in electronic technology time, it is an eternity. The SD memory card was born in the year 2000, when Bill Clinton was completing his second term as president of the United States.