SanDisk Crams 128GB on microSD Card: A World First

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BranFlake5

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10 Years ago we had 128MB on a micro SD card, today we have 128GB, in ten years will we have 128 TB? That is like 1000x bigger. Technology is growing ridiculously quick now. Imagine those old 3MB harddrives that filled a room. Now we can have millions of those in the palm of our hands. I also see this going one of two ways...1. Smart Phone manufacturers include Sd-slots and Android gets a huge storage leap (Assuming Android supports enormous cards to come)2.More likely, they increase internal capacity.
 

dgingeri

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We won't be able to get 128TB microSD cards in ten years. The last ten years, flash memory technology was trying to catch up to other integrated circuit manufacturing, and it caught up quickly, but now it's dead even, so it is not likely to go up nearly as fast. In addition, the newer manufacturing processes are making flash memory less reliable and less durable. So, we're going to have to find ways around it or it will become write once memory in about 5 years. I doubt we'll have 2TB MicroSD cards in ten years, let alone 128TB. We'll probably have something physically slightly bigger, but an entirely different format and design, in order to reach 128TB. Perhaps we'll have some sort of phase change memory or a solid optical storage medium in ten years that could store 128TB.
 


^^What he said. We are eventually going to reach diminishing returns in the manufacturing die and capabilities of current design in flash memory. There will be a finite limit to how much smaller memory cells can get with higher capacity. It's not a question of fabrication technology but instead physics. We will need an entirely new form of data storage to get 128TB on something as small as a microSD. At least as we currently understand it anyway. Some visionaries are talking about going to light and crystals in a few decades to really step the game up.
 

K2N hater

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Several smartphones already do but it's undocumented due to lack of validation. In practise it should work fine with any high-end Android (cheaper Androids seem to have trouble even with 64GB), WP8 and even Symbian.
 

rpmrush

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So high end high capacity and still can't best an old Sony Pro Duo format that easily hits 45 MB/s over usb 2.0. I hate Sony's formats. I had a camera that had the option of SD or the Pro Duo, but SD card makers want to bend you over for a Class yada yada card that rarely reaches it's stated class (10-12MB/s on high end) but a standard Pro Duo will transfer faster than a hard drive over USB 2.0 so it won.
 

Jaroslav Jandek

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Probably not. It took SSDs over 30 years to really take off.
Current NAND gates are based on plain old electricity and relatively big components (2 transistors separated by a metal-oxide layer). We are reaching scales where even at very low voltage levels, electron leakage occurs (same goes for CPUs) - in layman's terms, an electron can jump to another conductor - the higher the voltage, the farther the electron can jump. That is why we're trying to lower the voltage, BUT whether a certain bit gate returns 1 or 0 depends on the threshold voltage, which we have to measure and as you lower the voltage, it gets harder.

Luckily, there are different methods of data storage using spintronics or nanoplasmonics (quantum memory), that will allow much higher memory densities and even smaller devices - by this time, regular HDDs might be replaced by holographic "discs" (basically a 3D HDD) with exabyte capacities. But as soon as these technologies become commercial, we'll probably see the same rapid improvements as with current SSDs.

@dgingeri: while phase change memory does have much better performance and durability, it doesn't allow much higher memory densities than flash (they are heat-based) + they are harder to scale below 45nm than flash.
 

tcb1005

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Nah improvement is slowing. Look at X86 CPUs, now they only advance 10-15% per year.
 

BranFlake5

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Thanks to everyone for informing me. I asked my friend who's an engineering major. He explained that there is a maximum hypothetical value to certain components. He also mentioned that silicon is creeping closer and closer to becoming obsolete because manufacturing will max out its potential.

But thank all you guys for informing me. I love this website because the community is great because of informed readers like you guys. I learn new things everyday.
 
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