CompactFlash

CompactFlash (CF) is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994. It is now used for a variety of devices; most contain flash memory but some, such as the Microdrive, contain a hard disk.

CompactFlash became the most successful of the early memory card formats, surpassing Miniature Card, SmartMedia, and PC Card Type I in popularity. Subsequent formats, such as MMC/SD, various Memory Stick formats, and xD-Picture Card offered stiff competition. Most of these cards are smaller than CompactFlash while offering comparable capacity and speed. Proprietary memory card formats for use in professional audio and video, such as P2 and SxS, are physically larger, faster, and costlier.

CompactFlash remains popular and is supported not only in many high end consumer devices, but in some professional applications as well. As of 2012, both Canon and Nikon use CompactFlash as storage medium for their flagship digital still cameras. Canon also chose CompactFlash as the recording medium for its professional high-definition tapeless video cameras. Ikegami professional video cameras can record digital video onto CompactFlash cards through an adaptor.

In 2008, a variant of CompactFlash known as CFast was announced. CFast is based on the Serial ATA bus rather than the Parallel ATA bus, used by the original CompactFlash.

In November 2010, Sandisk, Sony and Nikon proposed a next generation card format to the CompactFlash Association which would come in a similar form factor as CF/CFast but be based on PCI Express instead of Parallel ATA or SATA. The new format is targeted at high-definition camcorders and high-resolution digital photo cameras, would offer a target read and write speeds of 1 Gbit/s (125 Mbyte/s) and storage capabilities beyond 2 TiB, and is not backward compatible with either CompactFlash or CFast. The XQD card format was officially announced by the CompactFlash Association in December 2011.