CompactFlash Association Unveils CFexpress 2.0 Spec

The CompactFlash Association (CFA) announces the CFexpress 2.0 specification which expands the spec to include two additional form factors for professional imaging and industrial markets that require performance and quality recording media for high-speed capture and transfer.

CFexpress was created to become a standard that can span many market segments and provide a stable and consistent format to leverage the industry’s R&D investments in technology and help reduce churn in the market surrounding standardized and proprietary recording media formats.

CFexpress 2.0 increases the portfolio of PCIe based removable flash memory cards. The demand for high performance with balanced power and thermal dissipation shall be met with the new next-generation plug and play capability form factors.

With now three form factors, CFexpress 2.0 supports performance levels to match various market requirements, while maintaining the same electrical/physical interface and memory/storage protocol. All form factors leverage the PCIe Gen 3 interface for higher performance based on a computing industry storage interface and utilize NVM Express 1.3 protocols for fixed length commands, an efficient queuing model, and low non-cacheable PCIe accesses per command. This enables access to a range of open standard platforms consisting of mature and proven drivers, saving development time and effort.

Form factors designed to meet specific requirements for applications in various verticals:

• Imaging – Improved data rates in enthusiast and professional digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs), mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (MILCs), drones and video cameras

• Compute – Low latency external and removable SSDs

• Enterprise – Faster and more reliable media to store image files, software features and configuration files for servers and routers

The three form factors – designated as Type A, with one lane of PCIe, Type B, with 2 lanes of PCIe, and Type C with four lanes of PCIe – support up to a maximum theoretical performance of up to 4,000MB/s and offers host vendors design flexibility with a form factor size.

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The CFA works with its ecosystem of partners to design and implement specifications that make a difference to the industry.

Hiroshi Noda, Canon, and co-COB, CFA, said: “As co-chairman of the CompactFlash Association I am pleased to introduce Cfexpress 2.0. The introduction of these three new form factors will support both the current and future needs of professional photographers, videographers and cinematographers and will standardize removable media storage on the established PCIe and NVMe ecosystems.“

“The Cfexpress 2.0 will enable many hardware manufacturers to create next generation higher resolution and multi sensor cameras. I am excited to see what the coming years will bring for the industry,” said Nobuhiro Fujinawa, Nikon, and co-chairman, board CFA.

CFA has recently added several new members interested in CFA’s next-generation and higher-performance standards. CFA invites host and media companies interested in supporting the CFA specifications to also join CFA as members. Membership enables participation in CFA work groups and access to draft specifications before they are approved and available for purchase by non-members. The Cfexpress 2.0 is available for members only.

The CFA is also preparing two further specifications. VPG Profile 4 specification will be released shortly to enable the promise of higher sustained video performance. In addition, the CFA plans to start specifications utilizing PCIe Gen4 in order to realize higher speed memory cards.