PDA

View Full Version : >2GB Non SDHC cards


bobor
Nov 29th, 2008, 07:00 PM
Why do regular SD (non-HDHC) cards only seem to only go up to 2GB?

Most of my devices that use this type of flash memory are only a few years old (cameras, PDAs etc.) can only use standard SD memory. Though they're cheap, it would be nice to be able to carry fewer of these on me when 'out and about'

I recall that the regular cards were supposed to eventually have 4GB capacities but i've never seen them being sold anywhere. :confused: Was/is there some kind of technical limitation?

ShadowVlican
Nov 29th, 2008, 07:53 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card

Aske001
Nov 29th, 2008, 08:54 PM
Short answer: A few companies (like Transcend) did make a 4 Gbyte non-SDHC SD card for a while, but technically they violate the SD specification and therefore don't work in many devices. They seem to have disappeared from the market.

They relied on re-interpreting a 16-bit signed field in the SD addressing spec as an unsigned field in order to gain x2 capacity.