Lexar rolls out 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB ExpressCard SSDs at DVinfo.net

Mike Teutsch · May 2nd, 2007, 11:31 AM

Could be interesting. Lexar rolls out 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB ExpressCard SSDs with peak data transfer speed of 250 MB/s. At a cost of $130.00 for a 4GB and 8GB models at $200.00 respectively. I assume the 16GB should be reasonable too.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/02/l...resscard-ssds/

Mike

David Heath · May 2nd, 2007, 12:29 PM

I suspect engadget should have put 250Mb/s (so somewhat over 30MB/s), not MB/s? If they really do mean 250 MegaBytes/s...... wow!

Brian Standing · May 2nd, 2007, 02:31 PM

Will these be compatible with the SxS cards (or slots) recently announced by SanDisk and Sony? Seems like they should be, since they both use the ExpressCard interface.

Could I plug one of these into an XDCAM-EX camera, for example?

Harrison Murchison · May 2nd, 2007, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Standing

Will these be compatible with the SxS cards (or slots) recently announced by SanDisk and Sony? Seems like they should be, since they both use the ExpressCard interface.

Could I plug one of these into an XDCAM-EX camera, for example?

I'm guessing no. These Lexar cards use a USB 2.0 interface.

The SxS cards should be full PCI-Express. I doubt they will be compatible which is a bummer because the price sure is nice.

Brian Standing · May 3rd, 2007, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harrison Murchison

I'm guessing no. These Lexar cards use a USB 2.0 interface.

Where do you see this? I'm looking over the Engadget story above, and it clearly says "ExpressCard." I don't see anywhere where it says "USB."

Kevin Shaw · May 3rd, 2007, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harrison Murchison

I'm guessing no. These Lexar cards use a USB 2.0 interface.

Sure looks like an ExpressCard slot product to me. But agreed that it may not be compatible with the Sony SxS standard, which claims to have some specialized design features to improve performance. Speaking of which, the recent Sony announcement for SxS cards stated a transfer rate of 800 Mbps (100 MB/sec), so any claim of 250 MB/sec for the Lexar product is probably just referring to the theoretical maximum bandwidth of the PCI-Express bus. As with most things, actual transfer rates are usually lower than the theoretical maximum, but 100 MB/sec sounds good to me. Even 250 Mbps (31 MB/sec) wouldn't be bad, since that's about all a single hard drive can sustain anyway.

As far as pricing goes, if the Lexar cards are retailing for $200 for 8 GB and (say) $350 for 16 GB, hopefully SxS cards will be about the same price by the time the XDCAM EX camera is shipping. That works out to about $700 for two hours of recording capacity for the XDCAM EX, which isn't bad compared to ~$50-100/minute for P2 cards.

Thomas Smet · May 3rd, 2007, 09:29 AM

I have to agree. Transfering to a laptop is only going to go as fast as the hard drive you are transfering to. Even 31MB/S will be pushing it for an internal hard drive. 31MB/S is still pretty darn fast for a video format that takes up less then 5 MB/S. The only time the full bandwidth of the sxs cards will ever really be used is if you transfer to a raid setup. Some laptops can raid together two internal drives or you could add something like a G-
Raid.

As for the card working we will not know until we hear from SONY or until somebody buys a camera and tests out one of these cards. So until that point anything is just a guess.

A few weeks ago at Office Max I found a 4GB Express card for a little over $100.00. I thought about the XDCAM EX camera when I saw it and thought of the same thing. Physically the card looked exactly the same. These things are very tiny. Imagine being able to go to a computer store to buy storage cards for your XDCAM camera.

If the camera does all the work and just uses the card as a storage medium I see no reason why any express card shouldn't work. If the cards need to be formatted a certain way then maybe only the specific type of cards will work.

Harrison Murchison · May 3rd, 2007, 06:48 PM

Hmmmm I heard about the USB from someone else and clearly they (and I) must have been confused.

No performance numbers are given but I think they'll have parts that perform very well. Kind of like those premium flash cards for photographers.

Wayne Morellini · May 4th, 2007, 07:53 AM

There has been Flash USB products in times past. I think the Express card interface does carry an USB interface protocol too. The Expresscard interface itself, is around 266Mbyte per second, version two of PCI Express is double that per lane, so the card might eventually follow. But how many Flash cards will actually support that speed is another question.

I might point out, that the external desktop cabled version of PCI-Express has been released, and I suspect we might eventually see a replacement for USB using the technology is a more convent form )which means a new round of USB flash sticks). The express card thing is not really needed and outdated already USB sticks could have been used instead (unless you want to record more than 300-400mb/s).

Kevin Shaw · May 4th, 2007, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne Morellini

The Expresscard interface itself, is around 266Mbyte per second...

The references I've seen indicate that Expresscard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gbit/sec:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

This link also explains the option to use an Expresscard slot to link to the system via USB2 protocol, but I can't figure why anyone would bother to do that given the lower bandwidth.

David Heath · May 5th, 2007, 07:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

The references I've seen indicate that Expresscard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gbit/sec:

It's also worth going to the Sandisk/Sony press release:

http://www.sandisk.com/Corporate/Pre...e.aspx?ID=3770

This comfirms that: ........"PCI Express™ has a maximum data transfer speed of 2.5 gigabits per second, twice as fast as PC Card™-based storage media.2

But goes on to say that: "The target transfer speed of SxS™ memory cards is 800 megabits per second2."

Which tends to make me think that the Lexar cards being discussed here are indeed 250megaBITs/s (not meagBYTES). So although they may not match the spec of actual SxS cards, if they are cheaper and fast enough for recording, the potential lower download speeds may be a small price to pay for the cheapness.

Wayne Morellini · May 6th, 2007, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

The references I've seen indicate that Expresscard has a maximum throughput of 2.5 Gbit/sec:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard

This link also explains the option to use an Expresscard slot to link to the system via USB2 protocol, but I can't figure why anyone would bother to do that given the lower bandwidth.

8*around 266Mbyte=2.128GB/s close enough, and maybe the rest in overheads and packet headers etc.

One reason why they use USB2.0 is so that existing chips that use USB2.0 can be used in the card, and probably are cheaper than Express Card chips.

--

800mb/s might be their target (as 266MByte/s requires extra design/cost considerations to get slow flash to that speed) but companies can do 2.5Gb/s if they want. 250mb/s is what an flash USB stick could be made to do, and below what an fast hard drive can sustain (probably around 600Mb/s, max speeds are much higher).

Bill Koehler · May 29th, 2007, 07:59 AM

For those wondering about the cost of ExpressCard 16 GB modules,
try this link:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listmod...derMay07UShtml

Can you say a tad more reasonable than P2? So can I.

Heath McKnight · May 29th, 2007, 08:45 AM

Can I use this not only with a video camera, but also a DSLR?

heath

Bill Koehler · May 29th, 2007, 09:32 AM

I don't know of ANY DSLR that takes ExpressCard.
So far it has been MemoryStick, SD, CompactFlash, xD...

Friendlier formats in that you can buy a USB 2.0 adapter
for reading them into your computer if it doesn't already
have a Flash Card reader slot.

Of course that can change....

May 2nd, 2007, 11:31 AM	#1
Mike Teutsch Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Port St. Lucie, Florida Posts: 2,614	Lexar rolls out 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB ExpressCard SSDs Could be interesting. Lexar rolls out 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB ExpressCard SSDs with peak data transfer speed of 250 MB/s. At a cost of $130.00 for a 4GB and 8GB models at $200.00 respectively. I assume the 16GB should be reasonable too. http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/02/l...resscard-ssds/ Mike __________________ Chapter one, line one. The BH.

May 29th, 2007, 07:59 AM	#13
Bill Koehler Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: Alpharetta, Georgia, USA Posts: 760	Lexar rolls out 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB ExpressCard SSDs For those wondering about the cost of ExpressCard 16 GB modules, try this link: http://www.crucial.com/store/listmod...derMay07UShtml Can you say a tad more reasonable than P2? So can I.

May 29th, 2007, 08:45 AM	#14
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	Can I use this not only with a video camera, but also a DSLR? heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

May 2nd, 2007, 12:29 PM	#2
David Heath Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,699	I suspect engadget should have put 250Mb/s (so somewhat over 30MB/s), not MB/s? If they really do mean 250 MegaBytes/s...... wow!

May 2nd, 2007, 02:31 PM	#3
Brian Standing Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Madison, Wisconsin Posts: 621	Will these be compatible with the SxS cards (or slots) recently announced by SanDisk and Sony? Seems like they should be, since they both use the ExpressCard interface. Could I plug one of these into an XDCAM-EX camera, for example?

May 3rd, 2007, 09:29 AM	#7
Thomas Smet Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Milwaukee, WI Posts: 1,719	I have to agree. Transfering to a laptop is only going to go as fast as the hard drive you are transfering to. Even 31MB/S will be pushing it for an internal hard drive. 31MB/S is still pretty darn fast for a video format that takes up less then 5 MB/S. The only time the full bandwidth of the sxs cards will ever really be used is if you transfer to a raid setup. Some laptops can raid together two internal drives or you could add something like a G- Raid. As for the card working we will not know until we hear from SONY or until somebody buys a camera and tests out one of these cards. So until that point anything is just a guess. A few weeks ago at Office Max I found a 4GB Express card for a little over $100.00. I thought about the XDCAM EX camera when I saw it and thought of the same thing. Physically the card looked exactly the same. These things are very tiny. Imagine being able to go to a computer store to buy storage cards for your XDCAM camera. If the camera does all the work and just uses the card as a storage medium I see no reason why any express card shouldn't work. If the cards need to be formatted a certain way then maybe only the specific type of cards will work.

May 3rd, 2007, 06:48 PM	#8
Harrison Murchison Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 243	Hmmmm I heard about the USB from someone else and clearly they (and I) must have been confused. No performance numbers are given but I think they'll have parts that perform very well. Kind of like those premium flash cards for photographers.

May 4th, 2007, 07:53 AM	#9
Wayne Morellini Inner Circle Join Date: May 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 2,762	There has been Flash USB products in times past. I think the Express card interface does carry an USB interface protocol too. The Expresscard interface itself, is around 266Mbyte per second, version two of PCI Express is double that per lane, so the card might eventually follow. But how many Flash cards will actually support that speed is another question. I might point out, that the external desktop cabled version of PCI-Express has been released, and I suspect we might eventually see a replacement for USB using the technology is a more convent form )which means a new round of USB flash sticks). The express card thing is not really needed and outdated already USB sticks could have been used instead (unless you want to record more than 300-400mb/s).

May 29th, 2007, 09:32 AM	#15
Bill Koehler Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: Alpharetta, Georgia, USA Posts: 760	I don't know of ANY DSLR that takes ExpressCard. So far it has been MemoryStick, SD, CompactFlash, xD... Friendlier formats in that you can buy a USB 2.0 adapter for reading them into your computer if it doesn't already have a Flash Card reader slot. Of course that can change....