Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Compact Flash

Compact Flash

Compact Flash memory (sometimes called CF) is a kind of memory card created in 1994 by the company SanDisk. Compact Flash is made up of a memory controller and a flash memory chip contained within a miniature casing (42.8mm wide and 36.4mm high), which is smaller than a matchbox and weighs only 11.4 grams.

There are two types of Compact Flash cards, with different dimensions:

·                                 Type I Compact Flash cards, which are 3.3mm thick;

                                                                                           3.3mmCompact Flash card

·                                 Type II Compact Flash cards, which are 5mm thick.


                                                                                      5mm Compact Flash card


CompactFlash cards comply with the PCMCIA/ATA standard, although the connector has 50 pins instead of 68, as PCMCIA do. For this reason, a CompactFlash card can be inserted into a passive Type II PCMCIA slot