SanDisk appears ready to bring extremely high-capacity SD cards to market, but the upgrade comes with a major catch. The coming SDUC lineup may reach 8 TB, yet it will only work with new readers built for the standard.
That compatibility gap is the real story behind the launch. Even newer SD Express readers are still said to be unable to handle SDUC, which means buyers would need more than just a new card to take advantage of the capacity jump.
New capacity, new limitations
At Computex, SanDisk was not present as an exhibitor, but product traces were still visible at the SD Association booth. A poster on display showed SD and microSD cards with capacities ranging from 4 TB to 8 TB, and people at the booth said the cards would arrive soon.
SanDisk is preparing SDUC products in its Ultra and Extreme lines. The Ultra family is expected to include both SDUC and microSDUC versions, with the full-size SD card reaching 8 TB and the microSDUC model reaching 4 TB.
The Extreme line also includes a 4 TB SDUC card. There is no major change in that variant from the earlier announcement, although detailed specifications have not yet been released.
Reader support remains the bottleneck
SDUC cannot be used with the card readers already on the market. The format needs a dedicated new reader, and even the latest SD Express readers are reportedly still not enough.
That limitation also affects the current SanDisk Pro Reader, although it is presently out of stock. The situation suggests that a new reader is being prepared to bridge the compatibility gap that has long separated the major SD card standards.
The SD card standard is moving again
Historically, UHS-II, SDUC, and SD Express have been mutually exclusive. This year, however, the industry is expected to introduce a reader capable of supporting all three standards in a single device.
A solution like that was also shown at Computex, pointing to a more universal direction for the category. Even so, SDUC itself still requires new hardware before users can make use of its higher capacities.
SanDisk has not provided pricing or a firm availability timeline. When asked about the new cards and the missing SD Express reader, the company said it could not comment at this time.
Still, booth staff from other companies at the SD Association area said the cards would be available soon. With the poster on display and confirmation on the show floor, SanDisk’s SDUC launch now looks far more concrete than the earlier announcement.
