Millions of users rely every day on small memory cards that are invaluable when it comes to organizing and storing our digital lives. Their relationship between cost and convenience is excellent, but performance is an aspect in which they have fallen a bit behind. However, the SD Association has just presented the new A1 standard under the SD 5.1 specification. All cards bearing the A1 reference will guarantee an average of 10 MB per second in app execution, and it has already been confirmed that faster cards will be available in the future.
Over the years, Flash memory has become one of the most popular and effective technologies on the market. With relatively low cost, excellent density, and very compact formats, they are essentially the first and only option for expanding the storage capacity of mobile devices. One of those formats is microSD, which, by the way, already stores 512 gigabytes of data, although it is easier to find cards with half that amount in the market. If the microSD format has a weak link in its chain, it is performance. Some models achieve 90 megabytes per second of read speed, but those values are reached under very specific conditions. The SD Association believes it can improve the performance of microSD cards when running apps, which brings us to the new A1 standard.
The latest mobile devices offer a significant amount of internal space for storing apps, but there are many users out there who prefer to move them to the microSD card, even if that means slower execution. With the latest versions of Android, this process has become very simple, and the A1 standard arises as a response. A1 is part of the brand-new SD 5.1 specification, under which we will see new cards (in all formats) very soon. A1 focuses on two general parameters: number of input-output operations per second in read and/or write, and sustained sequential performance. In the first case, A1 will deliver 1,500 and 500 IOPS respectively, while its sustained transfer will be 10 megabytes per second.
As expected, the memory card 'and' the device will need to support the new standard (the A1 logo will be printed on both), but the interesting thing is that we are looking at minimum values. The next generations will be even faster, while maintaining backward compatibility.
