That sort of spec is incredibly useful. Should provide a lot more overhead for devices like DSLRs shooting in high frame rates or 4K video on the go.
Does anyone else find their mind blown when looking at tech specs, smallness, and speeds of todays tech?
So, is this not reverse compatible with existing Micro SD devices? Or is it reverse compatible but can only reach those speeds with a device that has a universal flash controller? Of course, the big question is, outside of pro photo and video, who needs this?
It is entirely incompatible with micro-SD/SDXC/SDHC/UHS. The card is a different shape and the contacts are in different positions.
During their recent WAN show, LinusTechTips dubbed this a "pinky nail sized SSD" and I can see what they were talking about. I'm not a fan of creating yet another format either though, as it'll take years for most manufacturers to adopt it.
I think it's the right time for this, devices need higher speed, and the technology is there to make them, so it's all about getting a standard for packaging and interfacing like this. And it's from JEDEC and already has a few companies behind it too. And even has support in the linux kernel. Only issue is that it's already a few versions in UFS and I just wish they would not create situations like with SD cards where you first get new sizes in physical sense and then several iterations of the electrical connection and standards for more than one filesystem depending on size leading you to get various support across devices, and leading to you getting corrupt file systems if you try to use card over 32GB in devices not supporting it for instance. They should make the standard robustly forward-looking and prevent constant changes.
Samsung's now announced that it's developing a socket capable of hosting either micro-SD or UFS, so that's at least one hurdle solved: manufacturers can put dual-format sockets in future devices while users gradually move from micro-SD to UFS.
