CompactFlash Association Announces Availability of Revision 4.0 of the CF+™ & CompactFlash® Specification

Revision 4.0 Increases CF Interface Data Transfer Rate to 133MB/sec.

KOLN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The CompactFlash Association (CFA) announces the approval and availability of the CF+ & CompactFlash Specification Revision 4.0. Revision 4.0 increases the CompactFlash interface data transfer rate from 66MB/sec to 133MB/sec, while maintaining forward and backward compatibility with old and new host systems.

Mr. Shigeto Kanda of Canon and the CFA chairman of the board said, “The development of the CompactFlash 133MB/sec interface means that the CompactFlash interface will not restrict the sustained data transfer rate of CompactFlash cards in the near future. Having the fastest interface data rate of any flash cards is a significant step for CompactFlash. Data write performance of digital SLR cameras as well as other high performance cameras will not be limited by the flash card interface.”

The DMA interface modes reduce the processor power required to manage the CompactFlash data transfers. Ultra DMA 133 interface mode will increase the CompactFlash interface data transfer rate to 133MB/sec. This Ultra DMA 133 interface mode is well defined and tested by its usage on IDE hard disk drives.

Faster PCMCIA ATA Memory modes have also been added and can provide interface transfer rates up to 133MB/sec.

With the addition of the UDMA 133 feature, forward and backward compatibility is maintained with systems and CF cards even operating with the interface data transfer rate of 16MB/sec.

CompactFlash card slots are in over 325 digital cameras, over 150 handheld/palm-size PCs and over 410 other electronic platforms including heart monitors, defibrillators, printers, MP3 players, voice recorders, embedded computers, etc.

CompactFlash cards are currently available up to 16GB and sustained data rates of 40MB/sec. and provide the best storage solution for the new multi-mega pixel cameras, Pocket PCs and other devices.

The CF+ and CompactFlash Standard ensures that today's and tomorrow's digital cameras will be compatible with faster and even higher capacity CF cards, as they become available.

In addition to CompactFlash data storage cards, there are CF cards that provide I/O capability. VGA, Ethernet, modem, serial, parallel, digital phone, GSM, Bluetooth, Ethernet wireless Wand & laser barcode scanners, finger print scanners, TV and GPS CF+ cards are all available.

The CF Specification Revision 4.0 is available to download free from the CFA web site at http://www.compactflash.org.

The CFA (logo), CF (logo) and CF+ are trademarks of the CFA and are licensed royalty free to its members.

The CFA is a licensee of the CompactFlash® trademark and in turn will license it royalty-free to its members.