SanDisk Corp. unveiled a 4GB SD high capacity (SDHC) memory card on Monday.

The Santa Clara Calif. Based company said the new card can store more than 2,000 high-resolution pictures, more than 1,000 digital songs or up to eight hours of MPEG 4 video.

Demand for high capacity cards continues to increase as storage-intensive applications such as digital cameras and digital video camcorders capable of taking high-resolution pictures and recording high-quality video clips come into the mainstream, Susan Park, retail product marketing manager at SanDisk, said in a statement.

SDHC cards require an SDHC-compatible reader however, SanDisk will include the MicroMate USB 2.0 reader at no extra charge. These new readers work with both SDHC and SD cards.

SDHC is the designation for SD cards larger than 2GB that adhere to the SD 2.00 specification, a new design that is required for cards and hosts to support 4GB to 32GB capacities, the company explained.

The specification was developed by the SD Association, an industry standards board.

Although standard SD and SDHC cards look identical in size and shape, only SDHC-compatible products will be able to accept the new SDHC cards. SanDisk said it differentiates its new cards with the SDHC logo on the card and retail package.

The new cards will be available for purchase this month, priced at $199 with the bundle, SanDisk said.