Panasonic unveils 8GB SD card

US-based electronics firm Panasonic has unveiled an 8GB SD memory card.

The 8GB card, model RP-SDV08GU1K, will be globally released in September with a suggested retail price of $159.99.

With the introduction of this model, Panasonic now offers four high speed SD card models, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB card sizes with the Class 6 Speed specification.

The company said it is also planning to introduce a 16GB model later this year to further boost its lineup.

Panasonic said the introduction of the higher capacity cards is largely due to the growing demand for recording high definition video and high resolution images with HD camcorders and high-resolution digital still cameras. As a result, card-based recording media is increasingly required to have larger capacity and higher data transfer speeds.

Panasonic's new models are compatible with the SD Memory Card Ver.2.0 standard as well as Class 6 Speed specification, which guarantees a minimum data transfer speed of 6Mbps.

The 8GB model is able to record a HD movie of approximately two hours in AVCHD normal mode, and to store about 3080 high resolution still images.