Panasonic developing 32GB SDHC card

Panasonic has unveiled a prototype for a 32GB SDHC memory card, setting a new record for such cards' capacity.

The Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) specification for flash-based memory cards, an enhancement to the standard SD specification, was finalised in 2006. While standard SD cards have a maximum capacity of 4GB, SDHC theoretically promises capacities of up to 2TB (terabytes).

Panasonic's prototype, shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which began on Monday, is the first SDHC card with the ability to hold 32GB of data, the company has claimed. The previously available maximum capacity for such cards had been 16GB.

In a statement on Sunday, Panasonic said its newly developed card would be particularly ideal for use in high-definition videocameras, as the card allows maximum data-transfer rates of up to 2MB per second.

The card would also have applications in a variety of other, more business-centric devices, although a legacy SD slot will not be able to take SDHC cards.