The SD Association (SDA) is an American
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
that sets standards for the
SD memory card
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDisk ...
format.
SanDisk
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
,
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
(Matsushita) and
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
formed the SD Association in January 2000.
In 2010, the SDA had approximately 1,000 member companies involved in the design and development of SD standards. Thousands of device models and hundreds of products across dozens of product categories integrate the small, removable memory cards.
The SD Association develops industry standards that define the next generation of SD cards and guide manufacturers in developing new products. This strategy has made the SD memory card the most widely used removable memory card form factor in the industry.
SD standards
"SD memory card" and "SD host device" are the umbrella descriptions for any memory card or device built to SD standards. The SDA does not manufacture, market or sell any product. It exists solely to create industry standards and promote the adoption, advancement and use of SD standards. These standards are adopted by product manufacturers that make mechanical definitions and environmental requirements); File System Spec (definitions of the file system requirements in SD cards); SDIO and Intelligent SDIO card specifications (wireless LAN and TransferJet interface SD memory cards);
SD Host Controller Interface Spec; Advance Security SD specification, implementation and test guidelines.
The SD Association was founded January 28, 2000 by
SanDisk
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
,
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
(Matsushita) and
Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
– named also as "SD Group". The founding individual members include:
# Eli Harari, CEO and founder of
SanDisk Corporation
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
# Youichi Morishita, President of
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
(Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd)
#
Taizo Nishimuro
; 19 December 1935 – 18 October 2017) was a Japanese businessman, the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Japan Post Holdings, a Japanese state-owned conglomerate, the 26th largest company in the world, and a Fortune Global 500 compa ...
, CEO and president of
Toshiba Corporation
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
The SD Association held its first meeting on January 28, 2000, in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and elected the first SDA Board of Directors on April 13.
The Board of Directors included 14 industry leaders from Alpine Electronics, Compaq, Eastman Kodak Company, Hewlett Packard, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric, Mitsubishi Electronics, Motorola, NEC, Samsung, SanDisk Corporation, Sharp, Thomson and Toshiba Corporation. Shortly thereafter, SD v1.01 was released. The first SDIO specification was released in October 2001 and the miniSD released two years later in February 2003.
Multiple SD specifications were announced in 2004 including the First Advanced Security SD (ASSD), First Controller Interface and SD v1.10 with high-speed mode (25 MB/s).
MicroSD specifications
was released in 2005 with SD v2.0 SD- High Capacity (SDHC), introducing memory cards with up to 32 GB of storage in 2006.
SD v3.0 brought Extended Capacity (SDXC)
specifications offering memory cards with up to 2 TB of storage and Ultra High Speed – bus transfer speeds of up to 104
megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes o ...
s per second (
MB/s
In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...
) in 2009.
SD versions 4.0, v4.10 and v4.2 were introduced between 2011 and 2013. Version 4.0 included UHS-II interface specifications with bus transfer speeds of up to 312 MB/s and a new pin interface providing backwards compatibility.
Function Extension specifications and UHS Speed Class U1 were included in v4.10 while v4.2 contained UHS Speed Class U3 specification, supporting 4K video.
smartSD with NFC capabilities was introduced in 2013. September 2013 saw the first intelligent SDIO (iSDIO) specification along with wireless LAN addendum.
In February 2016, the SD Association announced its fastest speed class, Video Speed Class, which delivers real-time multi-file recording for many applications and supports the highest video resolutions and qualities available. With Video Speed Class, 4K, 8K, 3D and 360 degree video recordings are now assured and accessible.
In November 2016, SD Specification 5.1 established the new Application Performance Class to meet technical and market requirements to both run and store applications on SD memory cards while still providing storage of pictures, videos, music, documents and other data. SD 5.1 introduced the first and most basic App Performance level, App Performance Class 1, or A1. In February 2017, the SD Association expanded its App Performance Class with Application Performance Class 2 (A2), more than doubling random read and write speeds guaranteed in the entry level App Performance Class 1. .
In February 2017, the SD Association introduced UHS-III, doubling the fastest SD memory card transfer rate up to 624 MB/s. UHS-III faster speeds help move large amounts of data generated by data-intense Gbit/s wireless communication, 360-degree cameras, drones, 3D, 4K and 8K videos recorded on SDXC and SDHC memory cards.
In June 2018, the SD Association introduced SD Express which added the PCI Express and NVMe interfaces to the legacy SD interface. The PCIe interface will deliver a 985 MB/s maximum data transfer rate and the NVMe upper layer protocol enables advanced memory access mechanisms.
In tandem with the SD Express release, the SD Association also announced the SD Ultra Capacity (SDUC) card. The maximum storage capacity in SD memory cards grows from 2 TB with SDXC to 128 TB with the SDUC card. Both releases maintained
backward compatibility
Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially i ...
and are part of the new SD 7.0 specification.
In February 2019, the SD Association announced the microSD Express. The microSD Express cards offer PCI Express and NVMe interfaces, as the June 2018 SD Express release did, alongside the legacy microSD interface for continued backwards compatibility. The SDA also released new visual marks to denote microSD Express memory cards to make matching the card and device easier for optimal device performance.
In May 2020, the SD Association introduced the SD 8.0 (SD8.0) specification for the SD Express memory card.
In May 2022, the SD Association announced the SD 9 Specification.
Organization and structure
SDA is led by a board of directors, chairman of the board, president, secretary and treasurer. The SDA also has multiple board committees including finance, legal and licensing, plus ad hoc committees that address specific needs. SDA's organization operates three primary committees – technical, marketing, and compliance.
The association ensures global coverage by having key boards members in each region:
*
ATP Electronics Inc. (
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
)
*
Kingston Corporation (
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
)
KIOXIA Corporation (Japan)*
Lexar International
*
Micron Consumer Products Group, Inc. (
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
)
*
Panasonic Corporation
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb s ...
(
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
)
*
Phison Electronics Co. (
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
)
*
Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd.
*
SanDisk Corporation
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
*
Silicon Motion, Inc. (
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
)
*
Tuxera Ltd. (
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
)
Meeting structure
The SDA meets quarterly to review spec developments and promotion planning. Meetings provide a venue for SDA members to receive updates on SDA activities and an opportunity to update SD specifications and standards.
General Assembly Meetings are held bi-annually (spring and fall). General assembly events include an open plenary session in which members receive updates about SDA activities followed by speakers from the industry or market analysts. The committees hold working sessions after the plenary sessions. The board meeting is held after all plenary and committee meetings.
The SDA also organizes interim face-to-face meetings twice a year (summer and winter) where the various committees and the board of directors meet. Additional meetings held by the SDA include interoperability events, global workshops. The SDA also participates in trade shows and industry events.
Current leadership
# SD Card Association President: Hiroyuki Sakamoto, SD Association
# Vice President: Paul Norbury,
Cardwave Services Ltd
# Board of Directors Chairman: Yosi Pinto,
SanDisk Corporation
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
# Treasurer: Bo Li,
Western Digital
Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...
# Secretary: Ashita Gupta
# Technical Committee Chairs: Noriya Sakamoto,
Toshiba Corporation
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
and Yosi Pinto,
SanDisk Corporation
SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquire ...
# Marketing Committee Chair: Kazunori Nakano,
Toshiba Corporation
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
# Compliance Committee Chairs: Minoru Ohara, Allion Labs, Inc., Tsutomu Ando,
Canon Inc
is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optical, imaging, and industrial products, such as lenses, cameras, medical equipment, scanners, printers, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. .
See also
*
Secure Digital
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary format, proprietary non-volatile memory, non-volatile Flash memory, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association, SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The s ...
*
slotMusic
slotMusic was a brand of microSD memory card developed by SanDisk preloaded with music in MP3 format. They were first available at Wal-Mart and Best Buy stores in October 2008. The current selection of songs comes from Universal Music Group, Son ...
*
CompactFlash Association
CompactFlash (CF) is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994.
CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the ea ...
(CFA)
References
External links
*
LinkedIn Page
{{authority control
Standards organizations in the United States
Organizations established in 2000
2000 establishments in California
Trade associations based in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Organizations based in Contra Costa County, California
San Ramon, California
Event management companies