SD Association Announces Ultra High Speed Class 3, with 30 MB/s write speeds

 

 

4K video might not be on many devices yet, but you can bet in the next couple of years it'll become more prevalant -- and before you know it, even $150 point-and-shoots will be able to record insanely high resolution video. But in order to work with files of that magnitude, you need a memory card capable of writing data fast enough to handle that. So the SD Association has now officially unveiled its newest specification: Ultra High Speed (UHS) Speed Class 3 (U3), specifically for 4K video.

The announcement doesn't contain much in the way of information. U3 will require a constant write speed of 30 MB/s for a memory card to qualify, and will be exclusive to SDXC and SDHC UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards and devices. In the press release, Brian Kumagai, president of the SD Association, said:

“The world’s favorite SD memory card continues to evolve and meet shifting industry needs. Our new UHS Speed Class 3 standard will give consumers and businesses more flexibility and capability as the market shifts to 4K2K video formats. Both SDXC and SDHC memory card standards already offer the massive storage needed to support 4K2K video with enough room to store photos, music, documents and other data on a single portable card."

The U3 cards will doubtless be on the expensive side when they first launch, but as 4K video becomes more popular and widespread, don't be surprised if prices drop substantially.

(via Engadget)