14 DAY TRIAL // Cars have been getting increasingly intelligent, and now they are even gaining the ability to drive on their own. That means faster processors, more efficient overall hardware and, of course, better storage.
SanDisk has just revealed some NAND Flash-based products that will meet the last of those needs.
One of them is an SDXC memory card with a capacity of 64 GB. It can work in temperatures of -40 to 80 degrees Celsius and can hold up to two boot/user partitions.
The other one is an iNAND eMMC (enterprise multimedia card) with the same top capacity, but this one is meant to be soldered to the main PCB or whatever automotive entertainment or control system a car happens to have.
The benefits of the new storage devices are multiple. The capacity is obvious, but the speed is also noteworthy. When the chip can transfer data at 120 MB/s (30 MB/s write), you can be sure that your vehicle's systems will start quickly, that maps will load instantly, the touchscreen will be responsive, etc.
Even the interference from driving on uneven or rough roadways will be alleviated.
A self-driving car main system probably won't depend on storage overmuch, since active computations are done in the RAM, not the storage. But eventually someone will release one of those long-awaited hybrid NAND/RAM devices and that will change. Products like the new SanDisk eMMC and SDXC are a suitable stepping stone in the meantime.
Sadly, there are no prices to speak of, since that business is between SanDisk and car makers.