Lexar has today announced plans to join Sony in producing XQD cards. Back at CES Lexar indicated to me that they didn’t have any interest in the new format but it seems that opinions have since changed. Probably because Sony’s new XQD cards surpass the theoretical maximum achievable by Compact Flash cards. At the moment the Nikon D4 is still the only camera to support the format but with Lexar jumping on board I’m sure we will see Sandisk follow by the end of the year and then every professional camera next year include support for the new format.
Press Release
Lexar XQD Memory Cards to be Compatible with Nikon D4 and Future XQD-based Camera Models
“By collaborating with Lexar, we’re reinforcing the fact that the XQD specification represents one of the futures of high-performance memory cards,” said Nobuaki Sasagaki, General Manager of marketing department, Imaging Company, Nikon Corporation. “Our cooperation efforts demonstrate the vision shared by Nikon and Lexar to continue advancing the photography and imaging market with innovative technology and extremely high performance.”
“We are committed to offering innovative and industry-leading photography solutions, which is why we’re working with Nikon to offer and co-market XQD memory cards. We view the XQD standard as one of the most logical ways to increase interface speed beyond that of existing CompactFlash technology with the capability of offering performance up to 5Gb per second, in time,” said Wes Brewer, vice president of products and technology, Lexar. “This collaboration provides assured compatibility with Lexar XQD memory cards and Nikon D4 and makes this technology available to the entire photo industry.”
XQD memory cards are based on the PCI Express® specification, which offers 2.5Gb per second performance today with plans for 5Gb per second performance in the future.
