As some of you might remember, Pretec launched back at CES one of the world's largest CompactFlash cards, providing 48 GB of storage space. Then, at CeBIT 2008, one of the company's representatives talked to Softpedia about the speed of their cards, which was far superior even to SanDisk's most impressive offerings.However, that was a long time ago, so Pretec has decided that it was about time to upgrade its offering and launched several new cards, each of them breaking some sort of record, whether we're talking about storage capacity or speed.
First of all, the company released two CF models that offer 64GB and 100GB of storage space, respectively, which officially ranks them as the world's largest Compact Flash memory cards (or memory cards, period). While the access speed is not the main point of attraction of these new cards, it's actually not that bad, namely around 35MB/s (or 233X).But if it's speed you're looking for, then Pretec's got you covered. And that's because the company has also released two new CF cards (a 32GB and a 50GB, respectively), which can attain a maximum read/write speed of 50 MB per second, which makes them just about the fastest CompactFlash memory cards the world has ever seen.
It's also interesting to note that the Pretec CF 233X and 333X CF cards use metal housing and ruggedized construction to provide extensive ruggedness, while the Pretec 64GB CF cards can be configured or reused to make a 256GB SATA, the highest capacity 2.5-inch SSD out there, by using Pretec Q-SATA, a very innovative technology of flexible, scalable and modular SATA/PATA design based on up to 4 CF cards.
The new Pretec 233X 64GB and 333X 32GB CF cards should be available by the end of Photokina 2008, for prices ranging between $399 and $630, depending on the particular model. On the other hand, the 233X 100GB and 333X 50GB are expected to start shipping by the end of 2008.source : softpedia.com
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Reading mind of consumers and working to offer the requisite functionality are the important aspect for a company. To meet the growing demand in the field of compact flash card, Transcend has unveiled 300X 16GB CF card in the Indian market.Designed for professional photographers and amateurs, the latest release has been claimed to be the world’s fastest CF card to cross the record of 50MB/second read/write speed. With this, users can enjoy successive shooting and non-stop video recording.Tested by the professional digital photography website, Rob Galbraith Digital Photography Insights, the Transcend 300X 16GB Compact Flash card delivers read/write speeds of up to 45MB per second.
Austin Huang, Regional Head - Sales, SAARC & APAC, Transcend, said, “We are extremely proud of the fact that among the 130 memory cards tested, the new Transcend 300X 16GB has emerged as the world’s first CF card to have broken through the 50MB/second barrier. With the impressive transfer speeds and enormous storage capacity of Transcend 300X CF cards, we are confident that photographers, both professional and amateur, and all other power users will appreciate the excellent performance offered by this product.”
Supporting today’s high-performance digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR), the newest compact flash card works in dual-channel Ultra DMA mode 5 and is IDE PIO mode 6 compliant. It comes equipped with an advanced ECC (Error Correction Code) that can automatically identify and correct errors while transferring data. This will not only maintain reliability but also avoid data corruption. It also complies with the new CF 4.1 standard and ensures multi-platform compatibility as well as low power consumption.
Transcend has taken advantage of top-tier SLC NAND Flash chips and premium quality components for robust, long-life durability and guaranteed performance. In addition it also comes with Transcend’s renowned international Lifetime Warranty.
Available from Supertron Electronics Limited and Mediaman Infotech, the Transcend Extreme Speed 300X CF cards are priced at Rs.4000 for 4GB, Rs.6000 for 8GB and Rs.11000 for 16GB capacities.
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Intel Corporation and Micron Technology have introduced the industry's first sub-40 nanometer (nm) NAND memory device, unveiling a 34nm
32 gigabit (Gb) multi-level cell chip.This process technology was jointly developed by Intel and Micron and manufactured by the companies' NAND flash joint venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT). It is the smallest NAND process geometry on the market. The 32 Gb NAND chipis the only monolithic device at this density that fits into a standard 48-lead thin small-outline package (TSOP), providing a cost-effective path to higher densities in existing applications. Shipments of customer samples begin in June and mass production is expected during the second half of this year calendar.
"This new 32 Gb device provides the best bit storage density available in the industry," said Brian Shirley, vice president of Micron's Memory Group. "Together with our partners at Intel, we're proud to have now taken the lead in production process technology."
"The introduction of 34nm process technology highlights IMFT's rapid progress and moves us to the forefront of NAND process technology," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing, Intel NAND Products Group. "These advancements will expand the value proposition and accelerate the adoption of solid-state drive (SSD) solutions in computing platforms."
The 34nm 32 Gb chips will be manufactured on 300 millimeter wafers, each producing approximately 1.6 terabytes of NAND. Measuring just 172mm², less than the size of a thumbnail, the 34nm 32 Gb chip will cost-effectively enable high-density solid-state storage in small form factor applications.
A single 32 Gb chip could store more than 2,000 high-resolution digital photos or hold up to 1,000 songs on a personal music player. Two 8-die stacked packages would realize 64 gigabytes (GBs) of storage, enough for recording anywhere from eight to 40 hours of high-definition video in a digital camcorder.
The 34nm 32Gb chip was designed with solid-state drives in mind. The product will enable more cost-effective SSDs, instantly doubling the current storage volume of these devices and driving capacities to beyond 256 GBs in today's standard, smaller 1.8-inch form factor. SSDs are becoming the new storage medium for notebook computers, providing lower power, faster boot-up time, increased reliability, improved performance and reduced noise than hard disk drives. With the innovations in NAND process technology, such as with the 34nm NAND process, SSDs now offer a significant range of capacities to meet market requirements.
Based on the 34nm architecture, Intel and Micron also plan to introduce lower density multi-level cell products including single-level cell products, by the end of this year.
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High-capacity solid-state drives are picking up steam. After Super Talent's first stab at a 256GB SSD in March, Samsung has unveiled a much faster model based on multi-level cell flash technology. Samsung claims its new SSD can hit 200MB/s during sequential readsand 160MB/s during sequential writes, all through a 300MB/s Serial ATA interface. That's 2-3 times faster than both conventional hard drives and Super Talent's SSD.
Speed isn't the device's only forte, though. Samsung's new baby also features a "sophisticated data encryption process," a mean time between failure of one million hours (just over 114 years), and a standard 2.5" form factor with a 9.5-mm thickness. Because the drive uses multi-level cells, Samsung says it will cost "considerably less" than current single-level-cell-based SSDs.
You'll have to use your imagination to guess an exact price for now, because the drive won't start sampling until September. Production will only follow "by year end." Samsung plans to introduce a 1.8" version of the same drive in the fourth quarter of the year, as well.
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It is even more likely that the information will be forgotten immediately following the examination the cards were made for. The technology really hasn't changed in my lifetime; from time to time I would use a flashcard application on a computer, but in the end I carried around a stack in my backpack. Not a great solution, but it worked.If you are anything like me and enjoy solutions to things that aren't really a problem, then do I have a Mac OS X Hint for you: a process for putting flashcard information on your iPhone. It isn't particularly pretty, but in the end you have some pseudo flashcards to work with instead of a four-inch thick stack of cards that will be useless in a couple of days. While the process includes exporting slides out of Keynote and into iPhoto, the process would likely work exporting to iPhoto from another program as well.
There are a few downfalls to the process: you won't be able to edit cards after making them, you will have a bunch of flashcards in your iPhoto library, you won't be able to pile them into right and wrong piles, and you won't be able to make them into paper footballs when you are done. What you will have is never-ending capacity for flash cards in a device one half of one inch thick. If you have both an iPhone and organic chemistry this upcoming semester, you might want to look into this.
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