Sony and SanDisk have reached an agreement to develop the SxS memory card specification.

The new memory card specification will comply with the ExpressCard industry standard, which is being adopted to replace the venerable PC card form factor. Sony plans to use the new card standard in its XDCAM EX series of professional camcorders.

According to the press release, SxS cards will be the first native PCI Express solid-state storage media and the estimated speed is 800 Mbits/s. Intended for HD video editing, the new cards will have to be fast and large. The first announced card is a 16 GB model, but this number is expected to grow rapidly.

These cards will be compact too, about half the size of the old PC cards (34 x 5 x 75 mm). The new cards will be available before the end of the year.