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CFexpress Updates to 4.0 and Doubles Card Speed to 4 GB/s

August 30^th, 2023

CFexpress Updates to 4.0 and Doubles Card Speed to 4 GB/s

by Julian MitchellAugust 30^th, 2023

The CompactFlash Association (CFA) announced a new version of the CFexpress card; it effectively doubles the throughput speed and protects any previous CFexpress 2.0 investment with backward compatibility. Here are the main takeaways of the announcement.

The CFA has been responsible for ratifying the standards of CompactFlash, CFAST, XQD, and CFexpress. This new version, CFexpress 4.0, doubles the speed of the existing CFexpress 2.0 but maintains the same form factors.

Type A, B, and C CFexpress card basics, with Type B getting the hike in speed. Image: CFA.

The roadmap outlined by the CFA for CFexpress envisions achieving a performance level of 4 GB/s for their larger Type C cards, which will come in dimensions of 54mm x 74mm x 4.8mm when they are introduced. Type C is currently being developed with the aim of providing a theoretical throughput of 8GB/s. There’s no news on its release date yet.

This new announcement validates the success of the CF express standard, as well as the industry-standard PCI Express bus architecture and the underlying NVM Express technology that supports it. CFexpress was heavily adopted by the photographic, videography, and even cinematography markets mainly because its platform was built on economies of scale. It also set realistic power consumption targets for battery-powered applications when introduced by the CFA in 2016.

What CFexpress 4.0 enables

Removable media with 4GB/s throughput benefits videography and photography users with higher frame rates, resolution, and better color depth. The whole process of file transfer benefits in turn.

The CFA believes this kind of performance will also cement CFexpress 4.0 as a standard in the imaging industry.

“With the evolutionary approach in defining the new CFexpress 4.0 specifications, end users can preserve their investments in CFexpress 2.0 removable media cards while enjoying cutting-edge use cases with the higher performance CFexpress 4.0 cards. This is a win-win for the installed base and the growing CFexpress ecosystem,” said Nobuhiro Fujinawa of Nikon and co-chairman of the CFA board.

Manufacturers will also benefit from reduced development cycles.

CFA also announced that they are preparing a new specification for VPG (Video Performance Guarantee) for higher sustained video recording. There was no further information or release date for that spec apart from saying that a release would be ‘in the near future.’