Click to View

Back in September, SanDisk unveiled the first 4 GB miniSDHC card, which is a commonly found (and tiny) expansion card format used in mobile phones. The even tinier micro format—a quarter the size of a postage stamp to mini's half-siz—is quickly becoming popular with handset-makers as well. .

SDHC (Secure Digital High-Capacity) cards are capable of holding more data than standard SD (Secure Digital) cards in the same form factor. While SD tops out at 2 GB, while SDHC, which built on the SD 2.0 specification, will eventually hit 32 GB.

To pack so much data into its microSDHC card, Kingmax leverages Samsung's 63 nanometer process technology, currently the world's smallest.

In addition to increasing capacity, the Kingmax 4 GB microSDHC card boosts performance as well; delivering dual channel read speeds of up to 150X (22.5 MB/sec) and read speeds of up to 127X (19.1 MB/sec). This enables the card to be suitable not just for mobile handsets and various types of media players, but digital cameras, which – by their nature - require fast write speeds, as well.

Remember all SDHC cards can only be used by devices that are enabled for this faster and higher-capacity memory card format. That means cell phones compatible with standard microSD controllers, for example, won’t be able to use Kingmax's 4 GB microSDHC card when it is released.

Speaking of which, pricing and availability for the new expansion card haven't been announced yet.