Faster transfers for big Flash media

A Renesas Technology Europe product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Oct 24, 2003

A new 1Gbyte CompactFlash Type I (3.3mm thick) card offers the fastest available write speed of 10Mbyte/s.

A new 1Gbyte CompactFlash Type I (3.3mm thick) card offers the fastest available write speed of 10Mbyte/s.

Renesas Technology is also developing a 4Gbyte PC-ATA card Type II (5.0mm thick) that offers the same write speed.

The CompactFlash is suitable for large capacity storage in digital still cameras, where it enables faster shoot speeds, PDAs and notebook PCs, as well as for telecommunications and industrial applications as a replacement for small hard disk drives (HDD).

The 1Gbyte CompactFlash contains eight 1Gbit AG-AND Flash memory chips and offers five times the write speed and twice the capacity of Renesas Technology's current 512Mbyte device.

The memory card has a newly developed controller that uses parallel processing to support high-speed data transfer.

The device supports the new CompactFlash Association (CFA) Standard Version 2.0 (which stipulates a 16Mbyte/s data transfer rate) announced in June 2003, allowing fast processing of high pixel-count, large volume digital data, while also maintaining compatibility with the previous CFA specification Version 1.4.

The 4Gbyte PC-ATA card Type II incorporates 32 x 1Gbit AG-AND Flash memory chips and features the same newly developed controller as the 1Gbyte CompactFlash.

The card complies with PC Card Standard ATA and True-IDE specifications and offers faster data processing as a silicon disk with high-speed storage capability.

The 1Gbyte CompactFlash is designed for slimmer application systems.

Approximately 16h of voice (MP3) data (equivalent to about 13 music CDs) or approximately 30min of moving image (MPEG-2) data can be downloaded to the device in about 100s (compared with some 7min for Renesas Technology's current CompactFlash).

The device can also be used as a highly vibration-tolerant silicon disk in systems employing a PIO transfer mode 4 (16.6Mbyte/s data transfer rate) high-speed transfer interface.

The device enables system capabilities to be used to the full and makes it possible to reduce the system design load.

Sample shipments of the HB28J1000CCC 1Gbyte CompactFlash will begin in Europe at the end of December 2003 and are scheduled for the spring of 2004 for the HB28J4000ACH 4Gbyte PC-ATA card.