Another year, another memory card specification. Though I have to admit, it certainly isn't a bad thing that the SD Card Association (SDA) has announced that they're finalizing specifications to expand SD card capacity beyond 2GB, to a new card called the SDHC Memory Card. The new specification is promising a minimum SD Speed Class Rating, which for video products, is equivalent to MPEG-2 video, as well as the expanded capacity needed to help deliver new applications made possible by three other SD specifications: SD-Audio, SD-Video and SD-Binding.

SD-Audio will allow users to easily move music libraries between a variety of SD-enabled devices, to include cell phones, portable audio players, computers, car stereos and other mobile devices. The SD-Audio specification provides content protection via CPRM which is built into each SD card, to prevent theft of data.

Similarly, the SD-Video specification allows consumers to capture video, even MPEG-2 quality, and move it to an SD-Video enabled product securely. SD-Video will soon allow users to record and watch h.264 digital TV programs from their SD-Video enabled cell phones.
And finally, the SD-Binding specification allows carriers/cell phone operators to provide security for content downloaded to their specific network mobile phones. The content is bound to the cell phone device and prevents unauthorized copying to other devices or computers.

Sa-weeeeeeeeeeeet.

Contact information for this author is not available.