Lexar is developing a new range of SD Express memory cards and says the incorporation of PCI Express 4.0 and NVMe Express will enable the cards to deliver transfer rates of up to almost 4GB/s – three times faster than the fastest UHS-II SD cards currently on the market.

Available in SD and microSD format, the cards will have read speeds of up to 824MB/s and write speeds of up to 410MB/s and will go on sale next year – exact dates to be confirmed.

“Lexar SD Express memory cards are made to meet the increasing demands of users for moving large amounts of data including 8K video capture and playback, RAW continuous burst mode, 360 degree cameras and videos, and more data intense applications and workloads,” said the company. “SD Express will become available in capacity options up to 512GB, and microSD Express with capacity options to 256GB.

The SD Express memory cards will be built with the Silicon Motion’s SM 2708 controller. “Many of the latest high-end cameras and mobile phones are capable of recording video in 8K and require a fast transfer rate,” added the company’s Nelson Duann. “With the SM2708 controller now supporting the SD 8.0 specification which offers more than triple the throughput, applications such as 8K video capture, RAW photo capture, multi-channel IOT devices, multi-processing automotive storage and other applications requiring ultra-high data speeds are now possible.”