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Matsushita Electric Industrial, better known by its Panasonic brand name, will begin selling a new series of SD (Secure Digital) memory cards internationally at the end of October. The cards will offer double the data transfer speed of its current fastest cards, the company says.

The cards, which have capacities of 512MB and 1GB, are the first two members of its new Pro High Speed Series and are able to transfer data at a maximum rate of 20 MB per second.

The previous-fastest SD memory cards made by Panasonic, the Super High Speed Series, transfer data at speeds up to 10 MBps, according to Karl Takahashi, a Panasonic spokesperson.

Speed Limits

The new cards need to be used with an upgraded PC card adaptor to achieve the full 20 MBps data transfer speed, but the new cards can be used in older devices, albeit at lower speeds, he says.

The 1GB card will be available in Japan from October 15 for about $243 and the 512MB card will cost about $117.

Panasonic intends to release 2GB versions of the high-speed cards in 2005, 4GB versions in 2006, 8GB versions in 2007, and 16GB versions in 2008, Takahashi says.