CompactFlash Association Announces CF5.0 Specifications Now Available

Many DSLR cameras and some camcorders on the market today store images and video to CompactFlash or CF cards. The higher-end cameras tend to use CF cards as do many pro-level camcorders. The big benefit of CF cards over SD cards for the most part has been storage capacity. The CompactFlash Association has announced that the new CF5.0 specs are now available.

The new specs add new features to CF cards that will increase storage capacity and add performance to the storage medium. The changes include 48-bit addressing that allows for new storage capacity beyond the CF limit of 137GB currently to a new max of 144PB. Data transfers are also more efficient at 32MB per transfer rather than the 128K per transfer allowed now.

Features for more efficient clean up of unused space on the memory card have been added and there are a few optional features as well. The optional features of the new specs include a video performance guarantee to ensure quality of service for video capture apps and recordings with no dropped frames and a few others. The CFA offers no estimate on when cards using the new specs will be available.