SD Association

SD Association
Non-profit standards development organization
Industry Consumer Electronics
Founded January 28, 2000 (2000-01-28)
Headquarters 2400 Camino Ramon, Suite 375
San Ramon, California, U.S.
Website www.sdcard.org

The SD Association (SDA) is a non-profit organization that sets memory card standards intended to simplify the use and optimize the performance of consumer electronics that people use in every country. Panasonic Corporation, SanDisk Corporation and Toshiba Corporation formed the SD Association in January 2000.[1] Today, the SDA has approximately 1,000 member companies involved in the design and development of SD standards. Thousands of device models and hundreds of products across dozens of product categories integrate the small, removable memory cards.[2]

The SD Association sets industry standards for SD memory cards that define the next generation of memory cards that allow product-makers to develop new products. This strategy has made the SD memory card the most widely used removable memory card form factor in the industry.[3]

SD Standards

“SD memory card” and “SD host device” are the umbrella descriptions for any memory card or device built to SD standards.[4] The SDA does not manufacture, market or sell any product. It exists solely to create industry standards and promote the adoption, advancement and use of SD standards. These standards are adopted by product manufacturers that make interoperable memory cards and devices. Devices include a variety of consumer electronic, wireless communication, digital imaging and networking products that utilize SD technology.

SD standards vary in their physical size, capacities, functions and speed classes. There are the full size SD, microSD, SDIO, and smartSD cards. Speed Class indicates a memory card’s minimum write speed. SD standards enable manufacturers to deliver products that accurately capture video, photos and audio. With SD standards-based products, users have the ability to easily create, store and share digital content.[5]

The SDA’s standards and specifications including SD physical specifications (electrical and functional specs of all SD memory card variations – SD, SDHC, SDXC, speed class definitions);[6] SD Ultra High Speed (UHS-I and UHS-II) Addendum; smartSD Addendum (microSD + Secure Element and optional NFC capability); SD Mechanical Addendums (all mechanical definitions and environmental requirements); File System Spec (definitions of the file system requirements in SD cards); SDIO and Intelligent SDIO card specifications (wireless LAN and TransferJet interface SD memory cards);[7] SD Host Controller Interface Spec; Advance Security SD specification, implementation and test guidelines.[5]


The SD Association was founded Jan. 28, 2000 by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Panasonic Corporation), SanDisk Corporation and Toshiba Corporation – named also as “SD Group”. The founding individual members include:

  1. Youichi Morishita, President of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd
  2. Eli Harari, CEO and founder of SanDisk Corporation
  3. Taizo Nishimuro, CEO and president of Toshiba Corporation

The SD Association held its first meeting on Jan. 28, 2000 in San Francisco [1] and elected the first SDA Board of Directors on April 13.[8] The Board of Directors included 14 industry leaders from Alpine Electronics, Compaq, Eastman Kodak Company, Hewlett Packard, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric, Mitsubishi Electronics, Motorola, NEC, Samsung, SanDisk, Sharp, Thomson and Toshiba Corporation. Shortly thereafter, SD v1.01 was released. The first SDIO specification was released in October 2001 and the miniSD released two years later in February 2003.[9] Multiple SD specifications were announced in 2004 including the First Advanced Security SD (ASSD), First Controller Interface and SD v1.10 with high-speed mode (25MB/s).

MicroSD specifications [10] was released in 2005 with SD v2.0 SD- High Capacity (SDHC), introducing memory cards with up to 32GB of storage in 2006.[11] SD v3.0 brought Extended Capacity (SDXC) [12] specifications offering memory cards with up to 2TB of storage and Ultra High Speed – bus transfer speeds of up to 104 MB/s in 2009.[13] SD versions 4.0, v4.10 and v4.2 were introduced between 2011 and 2013. Version 4.0 included UHS-II interface specifications with bus transfer speeds of up to 312MB/s and a new pin interface providing backwards compatibility.[13] Function Extension specifications and UHS Speed Class U1 were included in v4.10 while v4.2 contained UHS Speed Class U3 specification, supporting 4K video.[14] smartSD with NFC capabilities was introduced in 2013. September 2013 saw the first intelligent SDIO (iSDIO) specification along with wireless LAN addendum.[7]


Organization and Structure [15]

SDA is led by a board of directors, chairman of the board, president, secretary and treasurer. The SDA also has multiple board committees including finance, legal and licensing, plus ad-hoc committees that address specific needs. SDA’s organization operates four primary committees – technical, marketing, ecosystem, and compliance.

SD Association Organization Structure

SDA Meeting Structure [16]

The SDA meets quarterly to review spec developments and promotion planning. Meetings provide a venue for SDA members to receive updates on SDA activities and an opportunity to update SD specifications and standards.

General Assembly Meetings are held bi-annually (spring and fall). General assembly events include an open plenary session in which members receive updates about SDA activities followed by speakers from the industry or market analysts. The committees hold working sessions after the plenary sessions. The board meeting is held after all plenary and committee meetings.

The SDA also organizes interim face-to-face meetings twice a year (summer and winter) where the various committees and the board of directors meet. Additional meetings held by the SDA include interoperability events, global workshops. The SDA also participates in trade shows and industry events.

Current Leadership [15]

  1. President: Brian Kumagai, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.
  2. Chairman of the Board: Yosi Pinto, SanDisk Corporation
  3. Treasurer: Bo Li, SanDisk Corporation
  4. Secretary: Junichi Yamazacki, Trek 2000 International
  5. Technical Committee Chairs: Hiroyuki Sakamoto, Toshiba Corporation and Yosi Pinto, SanDisk Corporation
  6. Marketing Committee Chair: Kazunori Nakano, Toshiba Corporation
  7. Compliance Committee Chairs: Minoru Ohara, Allion Labs, Inc., Tsutomu Ando, Canon Inc.
  8. Eco-System Committee Chair: David Guidry, Independent Contractor

SDA Board of Directors for 2015/2016 [16]

  1. ATP Electronics Inc.
  2. Canon Inc.
  3. Kingston Technology Co.
  4. Micron Consumer Products Group, Inc.
  5. Motorola Mobility, Inc.
  6. NETAC TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
  7. Panasonic Corporation
  8. Phison Electronics Corp.
  9. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
  10. SanDisk Corp.
  11. Silicon Motion, Inc.
  12. Sony Corporation
  13. Toshiba Corporation
  14. Trek Technology

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Matsushita Electric, SanDisk And Toshiba To Form SD Association To Promote Next Generation SD Memory Card". SanDisk.
  2. ↑ "SD Association Celebrates 10 Years". Hugh's News. 2010.
  3. ↑ "SD Leads Flash Memory Industry Into 2004 Dominating Market Share at 41.8 Percent". PR Newswire. 2004.
  4. ↑ "Simplified Specifications". SDCard.
  5. 1 2 "SD Standard Overview". SDCard.
  6. ↑ "Kingston Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) card" (PDF). Kingston.com.
  7. 1 2 Clark, Mike. "SD Association adds support for TransferJet communications". NFO World.
  8. ↑ "SD Association Gains Momentum, 86 Firms Attend SDA Meeting And Name First Board Of Directors". SanDisk. SanDisk. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "SD Memory Card - A Growing Presence in Wireless Communications". prnewswire.
  10. ↑ "SD Card Association approves microSD specification". LetsGoDigital. July 12, 2005. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  11. ↑ "SDXC expands SD into Terabyte territory". DPReview. January 8, 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  12. ↑ "Toshiba Launches First 64GB SDXC CARD". Toshiba. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  13. 1 2 "SD Card Standard Finalized". CNET. January 5, 2011. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  14. ↑ "The SD Association announces new UHS Speed Class 3 for SD cards". TweakTown. Nov 6, 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  15. 1 2 "Executive Board". SD Card. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  16. 1 2 "Board Members". SD Card. Retrieved 12 August 2015.

External links

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