500MB/s Transfer Speed, 2TB Storage: Sony, Nikon, SanDisk Propose New Memory Card Standard

It’s time for a new standard for memory cards – according to Sony, Nikon and chip maker SanDisk. The three companies jointly developed a set of specifications for a next-generation memory card for digital cameras and digital video cameras and proposed the specs to the CompactFlash Association.

While existing solutions achieve data transfer speeds of up to 167MB per second, the next-generation memory card has been enhanced about three times, achieving speeds of up to 500MB a second.

The new card apparently allows for “continuous burst shooting of massive RAW images”, enables much faster transfer (obviously) of HD video data and lowers power consumption, essentially extending battery life.

Theoretically, this new type of compact flash can store slightly more than 2TB worth of data.