HiDisc, a Japanese brand that belongs to Magnetic Laboratories company, has started sales of its 1 TB SDXC memory cards in Japan. The cards do not offer very high performance, but surprisingly carry the Application Performance Class 2 (A2) badge that we often only see on microSD cards for smartphones as well as tablets.

The HiDisc 1 TB SDXC card uses the UHS-I bus and is rated for up to 95 MB/s read transfer speed as well as up to 70 MB/s write speed, in line with other high-capacity memory cards. The product carries the Video Speed Class 30 badge and therefore guarantees that it features at least 30 MB/s sequential write speeds as well as simultaneous interleaving of eight different files. The latter is important for those who shoot videos in Ultra-HD resolutions (e.g., 4K, 5K, etc.)

Furthermore, it also has the A2 badge, meaning that it offers a random performance of at least 4000 read IOPS and 2000 write IOPS support as well as support such capabilities as command queuing (with a minimum depth queue of 2 and a maximum depth queue of 32) to optimize random read performance, caching to hit write performance targets, as well as self-maintenance capabilities. The A2 spec was designed to ensure that Android apps for smartphones and tablets (which use microSDs) could be installed on memory cards and run without performance issues. It is unclear which apps will be installed and run from SD cards, but it looks like either Magnetic Laboratories has certain ideas regarding applications that will use its card (Android-based drones?), or just decided to use an A2-ready SD controller inside its latest card.

It is noteworthy that HiDisc’s 1 TB SDXC card was designed to work in the range between -25° and 85°C (-13°F to 185°F), which is good enough for harsh environments. In particular, the card may be used inside cameras or drones operated in Northern or Southern countries.

HiDisc SDXC 1 TB Card
  HDSDX1TCL10UI3JP3
Sequential Read Speed up to 95 MB/s
Sequential Write Speed up to 70 MB/s
Minimum Sequential Write Speed at least 30 MB/s
Minimal Random Read Speed at least 4000 IOPS
Minimal Random Write Speed at least 2000 IOPS
Operating Temperatures -25° and 85°C (-13°F to 185°F)
Interface UHS-I
Availability 14 2019
SDA Labels A2, V30, U3

The HiDisc 1 TB SDXC card (HDSDX1TCL10UI3JP3) is now available in Japan, albeit in very limited quantities. The product costs ¥39,800 ($362), which is a bit below pricing of Lexar’s 1 TB SDXC card at Amazon ($399). Meanwhile, the card is priced at ¥49,800 ($454) when purchased online. It is unknown if this card will be found outside the Japanese market.

Ian - personally I think that Mag-Lab parent company logo is an odd one.

Related Reading:

Sources: Akiba PC Hotline, Magnetic Laboratories

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  • nandnandnand - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link

    Samsung's recent 1 TB UFS storage is smaller than microSD, and uses 512 Gb NAND dies. So not only could a 1 TB microSD card be produced today, a 2 TB microSD card could be made with 1 Tb NAND.

    The volume of a full SD card is about 9.8 times that of a microSD. Assuming the usable amount of storage volume is only 4 times larger, that means an 8 terabyte SDUC card could be made today. Use 1.33 Tb NAND instead of 1 Tb, and you could get a 10 terabyte SDUC.

    So when you look at the two or so 1 TB SD cards on the market, just know that there is not much stopping them from putting out a 10 TB version. And we'll probably see 1.5 Tb and 2 Tb NAND dies in the near future.

    Busty blonde riding a centaur? That requires much more R&D.
  • Rictorhell - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link

    Check out this story:

    https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/lexar-show...
  • nandnandnand - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link

    Products get teased but often get delayed to market. We saw that with the 1 TB SD cards.

    The largest capacity microSD you can get right now is 512 GB. I'm saying a company could put out a 2 TB microSD card today. Probably 4 TB microSD (microSDUC, which allows capacities from 4 TB to 128 TB) within the next 2 years.
  • Rictorhell - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link

    So, assuming that you are right, a micro sdxc card of say, 768gb, could be released by some memory card manufacturer, in the near future, as a stopgap product, until the actual 1tb micro sdxc cards are ready, and SOME of the 512gb micro sdxc cards have been heavily discounted lately, almost like a clearance sell to make way for newer, higher capacity products.
  • nandnandnand - Thursday, February 7, 2019 - link

    768 GB is not a "sexy" capacity point, so they'll probably just skip it.
  • namechamps - Friday, February 8, 2019 - link

    They did 400 GB as a stopgap until 512 GB was available.
  • rouregre - Sunday, February 10, 2019 - link

    HiDisc, a Japanese brand that belongs to Magnetic Laboratories company, has started sales of its 1 TB SDXC memory cards in Japan. https://tweakboxapp.xyz/

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