What are SHDC (Secure Digital High Capacity) cards?

Change is evitable. Televisions receive larger screens while taking up less space. Cars require lower octane gasoline while improving your bottom line MPG. And now, SD cards and micro SD cards remain the same size but receive a great boost in capacity. In an event that did not surprise anyone, Toshiba Corp. announced that they are increasing its line up of SDHC cards, which stands for Secure Digital High Capacity. These will include three new cards, including:

• 32GB SDHC
• 16GB SDHC
• 8GB micro SDHC

While this is by no means new, as the SDHC format had been introduced in 2006 (as we have covered in our Secure Digital High Capacity cards FAQ), but does show capacities previously unheard of. The current selection of SDHC cards can even be purchased here, but currently only offer a maximum capacity of 4GB. Toshiba's new lineup of SDHC cards blows that away, and also doubles the maximum capacity for micro SDHC cards.

All three new cards meet the Class 4 specification in the Secure Digital Speed Class, which enables them to deliver the high-level performance and functionality essential for advanced mobile phones and other personal digital products. The new cards provide much higher capacity for motion pictures and high-resolution images, music and digital content on mobile phones.

The 16GB SDHC card will be available worldwide from October of 2007, while the 32GB SDHC card and the 8GB micro SDHC card will be launched worldwide in January next year.

Key features of the high-speed SDHC memory card include maximum write speeds of 6MB/s (megabytes-per-second), Class 4 SD Speed Class, with a minimum sustained data write speed of 4MB/s, and integration with the highly secure CPRM (Content Protection for Recordable Media) copyright technology.

The features of the microSDHC Memory Card include large capacity in a microSDHC Card, as it can store 139 hours of music at a bit rate of 128kbps (kilobit per second), Toshiba has stated. The memory card also belongs to the Class 4 Secure Digital Speed Class, with a minimum sustained data write of 4MB/s.

In other news, SanDisk also recently announced expanding its line of micro SDHC card, from 1GB to 8GB to meet the fast-growing demand of the high-density memory cards. The fast-growing market market is driven by increasing demand for personal digital equipment able to handle motion pictures and high-resolution images. The demand for high-density micro SDHC cards is expected to emerge in the mobile phone market, as on-board cameras advance multi-megapixel capacities, and demand for music and motion pictures are also expanding. So while change is evitable, it isn't necessarily a big thing.