News

posted on 26 February 2008 20:30

CompactFlash isn't fast enough and should be superseded by Serial ATA (SATA) interface-using CFast.

CompactFlash is too slow to let cameras take continuous shots. The fastest CompactFlash cards reach 45MB/sec and use the integrated drive electronics (IDE) standard, also known as parallel ATA (PATA) which can reach 133MB/sec. CFast will use SATA  and attain up to 375MB/sec (3Gbit/s).

The pattern appears similar to desktop and server hard drives where the slower PATA drives gave way to faster SATA interfaces. The expectation is that this will happen with camera flash memory too.

Digital cameras will be able to transfer pictures to memory faster and, therefore, take more pictures quickly one after the other. Picture transfer from camera to a PC will also be quicker. The cameras themselves will need less cache memory.

CFast's interface is not compatible with that used by CompactFlash; it has a slot instead of pins, so camera replacement will be necessary to use CFast cards.

A CFast specification should be published in two or three months by the CompactFlash Association. CFast cards will probably first appear on top-end camera models and may appear as early as late 2009/2010.