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.
Key features of CF 6.0 include:
| Key Feature Enhancement | Benefits |
| Ultra DMA Mode 7 | Provides an interface speed of 167MB/s. This speed enhancement enables a new generation of higher performance cards while providing complete backward compatibility. |
| Sanitize Command | Provides an efficient NAND Block Erase of the entire user data area to return the CF card to “fresh” state before reuse or repurposing. Leverages a command defined in INCITS T13 ACS-2. |
| Trim Usage Guidelines | Provides improved write performance consistency. |
| Operating Temperature Range | An optional card capability to report the operating temperature range of the card. This allows card/camera combinations to enable use in extreme temperatures. |
Today’s highest performance CompactFlash cards are capable of 600x or 90MB/second throughput performance using the current Ultra DMA Mode 6. CF 6.0 Ultra DMA Mode 7 along with 48-bit addressing defined in the CF 5.0 specification enables the development of CompactFlash cards with up to 25% more throughput performance.
Mr. Shigeto Kanda of Canon and the CFA chairman of the board said; “As the Chairman of the CompactFlash Association I am pleased to introduce CF 6.0 on CFA’s fifteenth anniversary continuing our tradition of performance leadership. The higher performance provided by Ultra DMA Mode 7 will further increase the capabilities and value of both camcorders and DSLR cameras. These backward compatible improvements of CF 6.0 are expected be a significant benefit within the professional imaging and video markets and will firmly establish CompactFlash cards as the highest performance professional card solution for the foreseeable future.”
CompactFlash card slots are commonly used in digital cameras, video cameras and other electronic platforms including embedded systems, single board computers, data recorders, heart monitors, defibrillators, and slot machines.
CFA members are encouraged to participate in working groups and help develop future product specifications. Companies interested in participating in the definition of new CFA standards are also welcome to join the CompactFlash Association and to participate in work groups. More information can be found at http://www.compactflash.org.
