The CompactFlash Association announced on Wednesday that it has adopted a new specification and format to replace the venerable CompactFlash memory card. Tongue-twistingly dubbed "XQD," the PCI Express-based memory cards are smaller and faster than current CF cards, but should offer performance advantages over the current competing compact memory card format, Secure Digital (SD) and its recent SDHC and SDXC variants.
The XQD card measures 38.5 x 29.8 x 3.8mm, about three-quarters the size of a CF card and about the same thickness; physically it looks a bit like a tiny SSD drive. Unlike CF cards, which are based on the practically ancient PCMCIA standard, XQD cards are based on PCI Express, with a base maximum transfer rate of 2.5Gbps. That should be good for up to 250MB/s transfer rates, though the CFA is targeting real world write speeds of 125MB/s to start. Such write speeds would blow away all but the most expensive CF or SD cards currently available, and should be able to ramp up higher as technology matures and a future 5Gbps PCIe is implemented.
"The XQD format will enable further evolution of hardware and imaging applications, and widen the memory card options available to CompactFlash users such as professional photographers," CFA chairman Shigeto Kanda said in a statement.
The CompactFlash format likely has quite a bit of life left in it, as the most recent standard (UltraDMA mode 7) is designed for a maximum 167MB/s data transfer rate. However, as professional DSLRs offer increasingly higher megapixel counts and 1080p or higher video capture, the XQD format should allow memory cards to keep pace with the data requirements of future professional photography and videography equipment.
The XQD card will be publicly unveiled next February at the CP+ trade show in Japan. There's no word yet when we will see cameras that incorporate support for the new format.
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