PMA 2009 - Pretec: 666x CF is world's fastest

PMA 2009 Tradeshow
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Pretec: 666x CF is world's fastest
By Michael R. Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Friday, March 6, 2009 - 16:15 EST)

During the Photo Marketing Association tradeshow, flash manufacturer Pretec announced what it says is the world's fastest CompactFlash card.

Just ten days after announcing a 433x CompactFlash card at the "Focus on Imaging" show in Birmingham, UK the company has upped the ante still further with a CF card billed as offering 666x speeds. The new card is said to offer 100MB/second, which we're presuming is the speed of read operations, given that writing to flash memory is generally a slower process. With the previous 433x CF card, read speeds were said to be 65MB/second, and write speeds a still rather swift 50MB/second.

Pretec's 666x CompactFlash card line will be offered in capacities ranging from four to 64GB with samples available from April 2009. No prediction is offered for when the cards might reach the retail market. The previous 433x CF card is offered in a 32GB capacity, and is already available for sampling with volume sales expected to begin this month.

Pretec are a frequent contributor to the CompactFlash card record books, as the company has also announced a 100GB CompactFlash card which is said to offer the highest capacity for the format. The company's 333x CF cards were also described as the world's fastest until the 433x announcement - meaning that in the space of less than two weeks Pretec has doubled the benchmark speed. Given that 100MB/second is fast approaching the theoretical 133MB/second limit of standard PATA CompactFlash cards, the next step forward is likely to come from the newly developed CFast format, a SATA II based equivalent to the CF card whose specification was recently released by the CompactFlash association.

Pretec's 64GB 666x CompactFlash card.
Photo provided by Pretec Electronics Corp.

Original Source Press Release:

PRETEC 666X CF cards - Highest Speed in the World & Approaching CF Speed Limit

Hannover, Germany and Las Vegas, Nevada. March 3rd, 2009 － Pretec, creator of the highest capacity CompactFlash card in the world (100GB) and the fastest CF card in the world (433X), continues today its record breaking history in the field of speed and capacity by unveiling the extraordinary 666X CF card, the world’s fastest CF card at CeBIT booth Hall21/D83 and at PMA CFA booth at LVCC South Hall K286 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Four times faster than a typical CF card, Pretec 666X CF’s dazzling 100MB/s speed is the largest speed boost in CF history. 666X CF card is the newest member of Pretec’s family of innovative flash memory cards, consistently first to market in high speed and capacity products; 233X and 333X CF cards were introduced by Pretec at Taipei in 2007, 64GB CF card started shipping in Sept. 2008, and 433X CF card were launched at Birmingham UK in Feb. 2009. Pretec 666X CF card will likely also be the last of the high speed CF card in the CompactFlash industry, since 100MB/s speed is approaching the theoretical maximum speed of CF specification, which is 133MB/s. CompactFlash Association (www.compactflash.org) has released the new generation of the CF specification, CFast™, which breaks the speed limit from 133MB/s of the Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to 3Gb/s (375MB/s) Serial ATA (SATA II) architecture while keep the small and popular original CF mechanical form factor. Pretec has announced the world’s 1st CFast™ since CES 2009 in Las Vegas, also demonstrated here in CeBIT and PMA; which will continue to be the speed and capacity leader (up to 6Gb/s) in small form factor memory card for the years to come.

With metal housing and ruggedized construction, Pretec 666X CF card provides extensive ruggedness making the card resistant to impact & shock – at least 10 times more durable than a typical CF card, and enables photographers to make the best use of rapid capture of high resolution pictures in the studio, streets or elsewhere with confidence and piece of mind even under the most severe conditions.

Pretec’s CeBIT booth is featuring “Double 100” this year, with dual breakthrough of CF capacity in 100MB, and CF speed in 100MB/s; approaching the end of an era with legendary CompactFlash, and pointing to the next rising star of CFast™.

Pretec 666X CF card will start sampling by April from capacities of 4GB to 64GB.

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