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 Friday, September 9, 2016

From the CompactFlash Association:

September 07, 2016 – CUPERTINO, Calif. – he CompactFlash Association (CFA) announces the CFexpress Family of high-performance removable storage based on PCIE and NVM Express.

CFA has developed high-performance removable cards standards for the last 21 years with the popular CompactFlash, CFast, and XQD formats. The CompactFlash Association was formed in 1995 as the initial digital film format and continues to serve professional imaging and industrial markets where high performance and high-quality recording media is essential for high-speed capture and high-speed transfer into the workflow.

CFexpress is the next evolution in an open standard format for a broader set of applications, such as professional imaging, personal computing, servers, IoT and industrial. CFexpress differs from prior CFA standards in that CFexpress is a specification spanning multiple form factors and performance levels to match various market requirements while maintaining the same electrical/physical interface and memory/storage protocol. The new CFexpress specification is under development within the CFA CFexpress Working Group.

CFA’s goals for the CFexpress family are:

  1. Unify the ecosystem around a removable storage specification that has longevity in the market
  2. Provide a platform that scales with performance increases in the PCIE interface
  3. Leverages the technologies and skillsets of the larger volume compute markets
  4. Seamless compatibility with the capture ecosystem and workflow tools.
CFexpress leverages the PCIE physical interface for higher performance based on the high-volume compute industry. PCIE CFA’s objective is to specify multiple removable storage devices that spans from two lanes architecture all the way up to eight lanes. With the current PCIE Gen 3 delivering maximum theoretical interface speeds of 1.0GB/sec per lane, CFexpress would enable theoretical sequential speed of up to 8GB/s.

CFexpress also utilizes the low latency NVM Express memory/storage protocol across all of the form factors. This enables compatibility with a broader set of ecosystem components, such as controllers, OS, capture devices and workflow modules. In imaging, compute and industrial applications, the use of PCIE /NVM Express enables access to wide range of open standard platforms consisting of mature and proven drivers. In addition, the new CFexpress format also enable easy compatibility with the Thunderbolt interface which is also based on PCIE. Actual CFexpress products will vary in performance based on market requirements and protocol overheads.

Professional video data rate requirements are growing at an exponential rate exceeding the capabilities of existing open standard formats. 4K RAW video at 30fps requires 400-500MB/sec of sustained performance not including any overhead to guarantee performance over the entire recording media. 4K RAW video at 120fps requires 1,600-2,000MB/sec. 4K RAW video at 240fps requires 3,200-4,000MB/sec. Even in High-Quality I-Frame compression formats, the data rates quickly exceed 1.0GB/Sec at high frame rates.

Key FeatureBenefit
PCIE Gen 3 InterfaceProvides a max theoretical interface speed of 1.0GB/sec per lane of PCIE. This speed enhancement enables a new generation of higher performance cards to meet requirements for professional video recording.
Family of Form FactorsProvides multiple form factors to address multiple market segments with a unified physical interface and memory/storage protocol. 2 lane and 4 lane form factors will be the initial focus but anything from 1 lane to 8 lanes is possible. This provides a range of up to 8GB/Sec with PCIE Gen3.
NVM ExpressA storage interface designed from the ground up for NVM storage. The NVM Express protocol features fixed length commands, an efficient queuing model, and very low non-cacheable PCIe accesses per command, delivering reduced I/O overhead and performance improvements in comparison to legacy storage device interfaces. NVM Express is gaining popularity across various flash-based storage solutions and has driver support on all leading OSs.

Mr. Tom Ando of Canon and CFA Co-Chairman of the board said; “As the Co-Chairman of the CompactFlash Association I am pleased and excited to introduce CFexpress as CFA’s continues the tradition of performance leadership. The higher performance provided by CFexpress formats will further increase the capabilities and value for photographers, videographers, cinematographers, industrial, and compute applications. I am very pleased and proud to see the CFA creating standards that address new market requirements.”

Host and card manufacturers will be able to leverage the compute industry’s investment in PCIE and NVM Express. Media manufacturers will be able to leverage high volume solid state disk (SSD) controller technology to serve the high performance requirements of this market. The new format will have VPG (Video Performance Guarantee) capability with new VPG profiles at every increases performance levels. CFA’s goal for CFexpress is the development of a standard that can span many market segments and provide a stable and consistent format to fully leverage the industry’s R&D investments and less churn in the market of standardized and proprietary recording media formats.

Mr. Koichiro Kawamura of Nikon and CFA Co-Chairman of the board said; “As the Co-Chairman of the CompactFlash Association I am also pleased and excited to introduce CFexpress. The specification is a family of form factors that can serve many market segments with a unified physical interface and unified memory/storage protocol. We are excited with the vision that CFexpress will unify the imaging and industrial ecosystems around formats that are easily compatible with the computing markets. CFexpress represents a unique opportunity to unify the market around truly open standard formats.”

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Post Date: 9/9/2016 6:43:30 AM ET   Posted By: Sean
 Thursday, July 26, 2012

From the CompactFlash Association:

The CompactFlash Association Invites Participation on CFast 2.0

CFast 2.0 Format Leverages SATA-3 to Deliver up to 600MB/sec Sequential Transfers

Cupertino, California – April 16, 2012 – The CompactFlash Association (CFA) is pleased to announce the development of the CFast 2.0 specification, sponsored by SanDisk. The CFast 2.0 specification will be developed in the CFast workgroup and will leverage the CFast 1.1 specification which was released September 2008. Additional participation in this specification development will be welcomed.

CFast1.1 (SATA-2) cards and connectors are already available in the marketplace. CFast 2.0 will leverage the same connector interface as CFast 1.1 and the SATA-3 interface for higher performance. Host manufacturers will be able to leverage their experience and investment in the ATA storage protocol and media manufacturers will be able to leverage high volume solid state disk (SSD) controller technology to serve the high performance requirements of this market. The new format will have VPG (Video Performance Guarantee) capability with profiles capable of supporting digital intermediate formats such as ProResTM, DPXTM, and DNxHD TM.

The key features of the CFast 2.0 format will include:

  • Professional form-factor
  • Dimensions : 42.8mm x 36.4mm x 3.6mm
  • Durable & Robust
  • High Performance Interface
  • SATA-3: 6Gbps (up to 600MB/sec)
  • Video Performance Guarantee
  • Support for VPG New Profiles
  • Superior Power Management
  • 5mW standby power

“The CFast 2.0 format will enable hardware and imaging applications to leverage their ATA storage protocol investments. The Video Performance Guarantee Features of CFast 2.0 will widen its appeal to the requirements of higher end video applications,” said Mr. Shigeto Kanda of Canon, chairman of the board, CFA.

If you would like to participate in developing the CFast 2.0 specfication, please contact the CFA office to inquire about membership and/or joining the CFast Workgroup or the CFA website http://www.compactflash.org. CFA is targeting for the CFast2.0 specification to be available in the second half of 2012.

The CFA (logo), CF (logo), CF+ and CFast are trademarks of the CFA and are licensed royalty free to its members. The CFA is a licensee of the CompactFlash® and XQD trademarks and in turn will license it royalty free to its members.

Contacts:

Mike Asao
CompactFlash Association
P.O. Box 130
Cupertino, CA 95015-0130
+1-650-843-1220
mikeasao@compactflash.org

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Post Date: 7/26/2012 6:19:46 PM ET   Posted By: Bryan
 Wednesday, December 7, 2011

From the CompactFlash Association:

The CompactFlash Association Announces the Recently Adopted XQDTM Specification as a New Memory Card Format

XQD Introduces Industry Leading Performance

XQD Memory Card

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The CompactFlash Association (CFA) is pleased to announce the release of the XQD specification as a new high performance memory card. This XQD specification is based on the PCI Express® specification, which provides a solid base for future performance scaling.

“The XQD format will enable further evolution of hardware and imaging applications, and widen the memory card options available to CompactFlash users such as professional photographers”.

The CFA has adopted a new card specification with exciting performance and storage capabilities.

The key features of the XQD format include:

Optimized form-factor
• Dimensions : 38.5 x 29.8 x 3.8mm
• Durable & Robust

Scalable High Performance Interface
• PCI Express: 2.5Gbps today and 5Gbps Future

Actual Write Speeds
• Target 125MB/sec and Higher

To distinguish the new memory card format, an XQD compatibility mark has been created.

“The XQD format will enable further evolution of hardware and imaging applications, and widen the memory card options available to CompactFlash users such as professional photographers,” said Mr. Shigeto Kanda of Canon, chairman of the board, CFA.

XQD cards will be shown at the CompactFlash Association booth at CP+ 2012, February 9-12 in Yokohama, Japan.

Licensing for CFA members will start in early 2012. Please contact the CompactFlash office for more information.

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Post Date: 12/7/2011 4:02:13 PM ET   Posted By: Bryan
 Wednesday, December 1, 2010
 Tuesday, November 23, 2010

"CF 6.0 Introduces Performance and Feature Enhancements"

Cupertino, California – November 18, 2010 – The CompactFlash Association (CFA) announces the CF 6.0 specification, a new CFA logo, and a refreshed website coinciding with the CFA celebrating fifteen years of performance leadership in flash memory card markets.

The CF 6.0 specification adds performance and functionality to the current CF 5.0 specification based on the PATA (Parallel ATA) interface while maintaining backward compatibility. In conjunction with this new specification, CFA has completed a refresh to both the CFA logo and website allowing for improved navigation, future product and market application information along with enhanced member benefits. The CF 6.0 specification includes a new Sanitize Command, Trim Usage Guidelines and an Operating Temperature Range function along with adding Ultra DMA Mode 7 which supports 167 MB/second speed. The new CF 6.0 specification is available for immediate download from the new enhanced CFA website.

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Post Date: 11/23/2010 8:55:15 AM ET   Posted By: Bryan
   
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