15 MB in a Matchbook

Dave Andrews

The storage capacities of personal communications devices, pagers, and digital cameras could improve greatly in 1995, thanks to a 32-MB new flash-memory device, called CompactFlash , from SunDisk (Burlingame, CA). The CompactFlash, which the company says will be available in volume in the second quarter of this year, delivers from 2 to 15 MB of uncompressed capacity in a card that's the size of a matchbook (roughly one-quarter the size of a standard Type II PCMCIA card) and weighs just half an ounce.

CompactFlash cards will be available in 2-, 4-, 10-, and 15-MB capacities. In addition to combining the best elements of flash memory, the CompactFlash is compatible with the PCMCIA standard. That means you will be able to pull one of these tiny cards from your pager, PDA (personal dig ital assistant), or camera and put it in a CompactFlash PCMCIA Type II adapter card, which you then insert into your desktop computer, notebook, laser printer, or other device.

CompactFlash cards should make pagers and digital cameras more useful. Today's low-end cameras, such as the Apple QuickTake 100 24-bit digital device, typically have only enough on-board memory to store less than 10 high-resolution images. Alexis J. Gerard, editor of the Future Image Report (Burlingame, CA), says the low storage capacities of current low-end digital cameras means photographers working in the field have to download their images into a notebook computer if they want to take numerous high-resolution pictures. "CompactFlash," he says, "is the only thing that exists in such a small form factor that it offers electrical and logical compatibility with an established standard [PCMCIA]." CompactFlash cards could also allow two-way paging devices, a number of which should be introduced this year, to store large data messa ges, small fax messages, and even voice mail.

But one drawback is price. The volume price for CompactFlash devices to manufacturers will range from $75 (2 MB) to $345 (15 MB). But Nelson Chan, director of marketing at SunDisk, says prices will drop by about 30 percent a year. And he adds that flash RAM can be used repeatedly, unlike traditional film.

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CompactFlash: Pro and Con

Pro
-- Rugged (sustains a 10-foot drop to a concrete surface)
-- Low power consumption
-- Nonvolatile (i.e., retains contents when switched off)
-- PCMCIA-compatible

Con
-- Currently expensive

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CompactFlash

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SunDisk says its CompactFlash cards will deliver up to 15 MB of uncompressed storage for digital cameras, pagers, and other mobile devices.