Hosted by SD Association (SDA) and co-organized by Phison and Allion, 2017 SD Association Global Technical Workshop, was successfully concluded on April 24 in Taipei. The Workshop specifically introduced the specification of SD 6.0 (released in Feb, 2017) and the trends of SD and NAND Flash applications, and provided solutions of various SD smart host with its optimal SD Storage specification. Special thanks to Dr. Lu, Cheng-Chin, Director of Information Technology Industries Division, Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, for visiting and offering wholehearted welcome. We also appreciated our VIP guests, including established memory manufacturer: Apacer, global consuming brand: SONY, global card-reader Controller IC pioneer: RealTek, and the IT testing expert: Allion, for deliberating the trends of the whole SD industrial chain.

 

As one of the SDA board members, Phison Electronic Corporation also attend the workshop, dedicating to promote the three new specifications of SD 6.0, which included the new level of bus interface Ultra High III (UHS-III), Application Performance Class A2, and Low Voltage Signaling (LVS). These modifications would allow UHS-III to provide up to 624 megabytes per second (MB/s) transfer rate, answering the demand of storage for 4k/8k videos and big data.

 

For those users relied on SD memory card to expand the capacity of their mobile devices, SD 6.0 upgraded the Application Performance Class 1 (A1) to Class 2 (A2). A2 introduced SD 6.0 with a higher minimum random read/write performance level (A1: 1500 IOPS/500 IOPS; A2: 4000 IOPS/2000 IOPS), which would significantly enhance the speed and efficacy of Android system. In addition, LVS made SD 6.0 specification perform more effectively with less power consumption. Instead of the traditional 3.3V initialization process after power up, LVS (new 1.8V signaling) allowed the host device to directly start in UHS-I/1.8V mode. It is also compatible with those traditional hosts that connected by 3.3V signaling.     

 

However, many of our VIP guests indicated that interoperability testing is the first priority at this stage, due to the variations (i.e. different standards) of different card readers and SD cards. To confirm whether different SD cards could be interoperable with different card readers, therefore, became their primary concern.   

 

Regarding to this concern, Anne Tsou, the head of Strategy & Planning division of Allion and also the SDA Marketing Committee Chair, suggested: “Allion Labs, Inc, is the authorized test laboratory of SDA. We are not only able to conduct standard certification services but also able to provide customized consulting, testing services, and interoperability tests. Our capability in interoperability testing, plus our test bed (i.e. various SD Hosts and Devices with varied specifications/functions), will assist our partners with ensuring the quality of their products, decreasing the interoperability issues occurring in the future.

 

Accompanying with the clear introduction of the latest SD 6.0 specification and the detailed discussion of the SD industrial chain, 2017 SD Association Global Technical Workshop was round-off.

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