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View Full Version : A New Flash Format Has Moved in: SDHC


Brandon Miniman
11-26-2006, 08:51 PM
There’s no doubt that there are too many flash memory formats out there. SecureDigital, whether it be regular SD, miniSD, or microSD, seems to be taking hold as the preferred means of storage for many of our mobile devices.

There’s a new standard to remember – you may have read about it – called SDHC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card#SD_and_SDHC_-_compatibility). The HC stands for High Capacity, and allows for capacities up to a mouth-watering 32GB. The problem is that most older SD reader devices (such as that found in your WM device) won’t be able to access an SDHC unless the reader has the SD 2.0 standard. Confused yet? The good news is that by the time SDHC becomes affordable and is produced on a larger scale, our devices should be up to date with the SD 2.0 standard, allowing us to tote large amounts of digital media in our pockets.

Pony99CA
11-27-2006, 12:58 AM
My understanding is that SD tops out at 2 GB because it uses the FAT file format. There are 4 GB SD cards out there, but those require systems that can use FAT32 format.

Given that many devices seem to support FAT32, I'm not sure why we need SDHC. Is it just a new name for FAT32 SD cards? If so, existing devices that support FAT32 should support SDHC. If not, why do need it? Why can't we just have FAT32 SD cards?

Steve

Brandon Miniman
11-28-2006, 07:29 AM
Well, having a 32GB SDHC card will allow us to carry around LOTS of music, or a good amount of videos/photos, to play on our WM devices.

Pony99CA
11-28-2006, 12:00 PM
Well, having a 32GB SDHC card will allow us to carry around LOTS of music, or a good amount of videos/photos, to play on our WM devices.
I'm all for more memory, but couldn't the same thing be done with a FAT32 SD card?

I just read on another site that SDHC is really one part hardware (to speed up access) and one part software (to allow accessing more storage). If the software part is just FAT32, it seems plausible.

Steve

ChrisSpera
11-28-2006, 05:51 PM
yes, FAT32 should do the trick... I have SD Cards that use this format now...