CFast CompactFlash cards now said to be coming in "18 to 24 months"

We've already heard a little bit about the new and improved CFast CompactFlash card standard developed by the CompactFlash Association, but it looks like things are now starting to firm up, including word as to when the cards might actually be available. As CNET's Underexposed blog reports, a Lexar rep says he "predicts" that the cards should start showing up in "18 to 24 months," and that companies will "want to start working on prototype samples as soon as the specification is finalized." The big advantage to the cards, as we've mentioned, is their use of an SATA interface, which not only boosts the transfer rate to a speedy 375MB/sec but, of course, also makes them incompatible with current CompactFlash-based cameras. And you thought that 55-in-1 memory card reader was future proof.

[atrain @ Feb 25th 2008 11:51AM]

At least their sticking with existing standards. My favorite part of CF v.1 was the fact that was a perfect implementation of IDE. That meant that you could use a laptop hard-drive with your pocketpc. Though, I've never seen an adapter sold, so you'll have to hack it up yourself.

I'm personally looking forward to this. Heh, here come a new wave of 56-in-1 readers :D

[Mike Cornett @ Feb 25th 2008 11:51AM]

They couldn't have picked a worse hand model....The yellow in the nails brings out the nappy yellowish tint in the plastic.

[RichardBronosky @ Feb 25th 2008 1:34PM]

OH lord! I didn't notice until you pointed it out. Thanks for ruining my lunch!

[Crayola @ Feb 25th 2008 12:06PM]

... Not that the speed of the interface is the bottleneck here. Even purpose build SSD transfer rate is just 40MB/s, cost savings of a simpler mechanical socket also helps, look at the LGA775, no pins! Cost transferred to motherboard manufacturers

[n00b @ Feb 25th 2008 12:18PM]

Mike, you said it. this guy picks his nose too much.

[w00t @ Feb 25th 2008 12:21PM]

That looks like I could just plug it directly into one of the SATA slots in my Mac Pro, and if so awesome!

Poor man's SSD... I'll put 2 in and RAID 'em :D

[Razor @ Feb 25th 2008 12:25PM]

It's nice to see a slight solidification of standards happening this way. While I'm not in SATA cable design (they have a tendency of popping out easily) it's good to see a possible reduction in the total number of interfaces being used in the industry.

Plus the potential for connecting large storage devices (read: 3.5 inch form factor drives) to professional digital cameras sounds exciting =) Since the controller will likely be SATA compatible, this could mean e-SATA on high end cameras for file transfer in the field.

Anyway, exciting stuff. And yes, that hand model is scary.

[Razor @ Feb 25th 2008 12:27PM]

*not in love.

Where the hell is the edit button? Damn it =P

[HektikLyfe @ Feb 25th 2008 12:31PM]

I don't mind the yellow as much as the black, frostbitten thumbnail there. XP

[turn_self_off @ Feb 25th 2008 1:09PM]

hmm, it would have been interesting if asus had used CF as the main drive for their eeepc...

[David Olivo @ Feb 25th 2008 5:51PM]

that nail is gross. Sallowing grossness.

[Passdathpno @ Feb 25th 2008 2:00PM]

Can someone say manicure.

[jmd @ Feb 25th 2008 2:12PM]

whats wrong with the express card port thats currently in laptops NOW?

[RP @ Feb 25th 2008 2:24PM]

Are new cameras still using Compact Flash? All I see nowadays is "SD" cards. What products still use Compact Flash?

[T-Bone @ Feb 25th 2008 2:43PM]

These days, only professional-level cameras use only CF, like Canon's 1D cameras.

[BloodyGerman @ Feb 25th 2008 3:18PM]

With no compatibility with CF in neither direction, i doubt this will be a success. Well at least for the classic application like cameras (today mainly only found in prosumer DSLRs, entry-level DSLRs already switch to SD).

But this CFast will be welcome as new small form factor SSD standard for laptops :)

[linuxamp @ Feb 25th 2008 10:59PM]

I CAN see this becoming a success. Camera's require very high speed memory for burst shooting which many professional cameras tout. Their current solution involves writing to a high speed buffer then later transferring to a slower CF card. This limits the number of sequential rapid shots to the size of the buffer. If this new interface (and the memory itself) is fast enough they'll be able to reduce or remove the buffer entirely which should bring the price of the cameras down a bit.

Besides cameras this will also be a nice way to speed up many embedded devices which currently use CF as their main drive.

[Mr Deeds @ Feb 25th 2008 3:23PM]

So, does this mean we will have SSD drives running at 375MB/s+ read speeds when this is launched???

[TIMMAH! @ Feb 25th 2008 3:43PM]

If it uses a different interface, why not just call it something different? It's not like it's going to work in any existing CF devices anyways and it looks like the pin-out structure is also different so it won't mate into existing CF cardslots.

[tekdroid @ Feb 25th 2008 4:41PM]

who is their target market for this? The size alone will exclude it from the entry-level and mainstream camera users. That alone is a huge market for Flash.

[Guy @ Feb 25th 2008 5:29PM]

Why not make the reverse side a standard CF interface, which means the device can be backwards compatible with standard CF equipment depending on which way you insert it.

Sony just release a CF back recorder for its high end semi-pro HD video cameras and CF is used in all professional DSLRs.

However I also own some Sony SxS Express Cards and they would be a much better replacement for CF. They are a bit bigger though, but my SxS have up to 100MBps sustained read capabilities (about 666x speed).

[Sirocco @ Feb 25th 2008 9:12PM]

pre-eczema? Psoriasis?

[leadacid @ Feb 27th 2008 3:01PM]

The great failure of USB memory sticks is that they're all different sizes and shapes, so you can't really design a device that uses them as internal memory. PQI tried to solve this with their IntelligentStick format, but it never caught on.

So, it's nice that the SATA folks got the CFast spec out before anyone started making SATA thumbdrives. Although the fact that it's not compatible with standard SATA power and data connectors means it's still less than ideal, IMHO.