Memory cards are a very common storage tool in everyday life. With the introduction of 8K resolution in video and audio recording, users will have higher expectations when it come to the transmission performance of memory cards.
There are many different types of SD memory cards on the market, all of which comply with the standards established by the SD Association(SDA). If you want to understand SD memory card specifications and how to choose a SD memory card that suits your needs, you can refer to the previous QuikTIPS article "<a href="https://www.adata.com/en/quikTips/29/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Things to Know Before Buying a Memory Card!</a>"

The SD Express memory card is a new and efficient memory card technology which combines the advantages of traditional SD (Secure Digital) memory cards and high-speed transmission channels, delivering faster data transmission speed so users can quickly store and read data in the form of photos, videos, music, and documents. The SD Express memory card, as the name suggests, is a SD Card featuring the PCIe &amp; NVMe protocols of a SSD which can better meet the high speed transmission requirements of certain equipment and high-speed computational storage requirements of extensive product applications such as head-mounted devices, 360-degree video recording, 8K high-resolution image capture and playback, continuous RAW filming, IoT devices, game systems, surveillance, and automotive storage.
In addition, SD Express memory cards can also be used as fast and high-performance storage expansions for gaming laptops and workstation computers. It can be regarded as a "miniature SSD," a highly efficient and portable storage device. At the same time, more and more audio-visual creators are using SD 7.0 card reader slots like SSD expansion storage devices by transferring high-quality materials from SD Express memory cards to their PCs, unchaining creative inspiration from the confines of space and equipment.

Getting to know SD Express Cards

The currently SD 7.0 specification, as defined by the SDA, utilizes a PCIe Gen 3 x 1 transmission interface with a transmission speed of up to 985MB/s, which is 8 times faster than UHS-I. The read/write speed of the <a href="https://www.adata.com/en/consumer/category/memory-cards/memory-cards-Premier-Extreme-SDXC-SD7-Express/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ADATA Premier Extreme SDXC SD 7.0 Express memory card</a> can reach 800/700MB/s, leading the industry in providing SD Express memory card storage solutions to consumers.

SD Express Bus Speed

In addition to supporting the PCIe NVMe protocol, the Bus Speed ​​of SD Express is also backward compatible with UHS-I but does not support UHS-II Bus Speed. From the figure below, you can see that SD 7.0/SD 7.1 adopts two rows of connectors while SD 8.0 has three rows of connectors. SD 8.0 transmission speed also increases from 1970 to 3940MB/s, comparable to the transmission performance of M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs but smaller and more portable.
Since SD Express memory cards are at the cutting edge of product design, currently supported devices are mainly high-end laptops or SD 7.0 card readers. Hopefully more devices and systems that can take advantage of high-efficiency SD Express specifications and speed will arrive on the market in the near future. In addition to SD7.0 Express memory cards, ADATA also exhibited SD7.1 microSD and SD8.0 Express memory cards at Computex 2023 so that more consumers can experience the amazing convenience and performance of SD Express 7.0 and 8.0 memory cards.

SD Express Interface

Memory cards are a very common storage tool in everyday life. With the introduction of 8K resolution in video and audio recording, users will have higher expectations when it come to the transmission performance of memory cards.