Kingston Technology Digital Media Guide Compactflash CF Cards, Secure Digital SD Cards

Secure Digital cards feature cryptographic security protection and a 4x increase in data transfer rates over MMC.

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DATATRAVELER 2.0:

INTERFACE	FLASH TYPE	VOLTAGE	PIN COUNT	SIZE IN MM
Hi-Speed USB 2.0	NAND	5 Volts	4	25.42 x 98.17 x 15.40

7.2 COMPACTFLASH (CF) CARDS

CompactFlash, or CF cards, were the first small form factor flash cards introduced in 1994. CF cards incorporate a controller and are about the size of a matchbook. CompactFlash cards incorporate an Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) interface similar to hard drives and ATA PC Cards. Kingston is a member of the CompactFlash Association, which sets the specifications for CF cards.

Kingston offers standard CompactFlash cards as well as a high-performance Elite Pro line.

Kingston’s Elite Pro CompactFlash cards are among the fastest available in the industry. The high transfer rate is ideal for use on newer devices such as high- megapixel digital cameras, to ensure that the cameras save pictures faster and are quickly ready for the next shot.

CompactFlash cards come in a Type I form factor:

INTERFACE	FLASH TYPE	VOLTAGE	PIN COUNT	SIZE IN MM
CompactFlash	NAND	3.3 and 5 Volts	50	Type I:
(Includes built-in				36.4 x 42.8 x 3.3
controller)

7.3 SECURE DIGITAL (SD) CARDS

Secure Digital, introduced in late 2001, is a second-generation and more popular derivative of the MultiMediaCard (MMC) standard (see section 7.4) that is backward- compatible with current MMC cards.

The Secure Digital format includes several important technological advancements over MMC. These include the addition of cryptographic security protection for copyrighted data/music and a 4X increase in data transfer rates. The SD Card Association sets the specifications for Secure Digital cards.

To help support higher-capacity cards, SD cards are slightly thicker than the original MMC cards. This means that devices designed to support SD cards may also accept MMC cards (if the host device is not strictly limited to SD media for data security reasons). However, devices exclusively designed for MMC cards will not support the thicker SD cards at this time.

C O M M I T T E D TO M E M O R Y

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