SD Association Unveils App Performance Class SD Cards

The SD Association has announced a new type of memory card that users of smartphones and tablets that need more space for their favorite apps will want to know about. The new App Performance Class is part of SD Specification 5.1 and establishes technical and market requirements to run and store apps on SD cards. The specification still supports storage of images, video, music, documents, and other data as well.

To identify cards that support App Performance class, the SD Association has also rolled out a new logo, which you can see in the image above. The App Performance Class specifications are meant to ensure that the removable memory meets minimum random and sequential performance speeds.

"With its consumer-friendly symbol, App Performance Class eliminates buyers' frustration with identifying app-running compatibility on their Android devices and microSD memory cards," said Brian Kumagai, SDA president. "Matching the App Performance Class symbol with your mobile device requirements simplifies the process and continues the SD tradition of matching your memory card to your device."

The new App Performance Class specification goes well with the Android Adoptable Storage Devices support that tests memory cards for minimum execution time requirements. The SD Association says that the problem is that some memory cards can't pass this benchmark Android runs because they were optimized for storing images meaning consumers buy a card that won't meet their needs. The new specification will ensure that all cards with the logo on them will meet the needs of the benchmark. The minimum specs to meet App Performance class is 1500 IOPS random read, 500 write IOPS, and sustained sequential performance of 10MB/s.