Palo Alto, California, July 22, 1996 – The CompactFlash Association has approved a certification program that will ensure the compatibility of all CompactFlash™ cards and host systems. Products that have passed the certification program will carry the CF™ logo. CFA members took the action at a meeting in Tokyo July 10-11. Over 30 CFA member companies representing suppliers and users of CompactFlash attended the meeting.
Compatibility and interchangeability of all CompactFlash products have been major advantages for CompactFlash. CompactFlash is the only small form factor storage card that provides product compatibility certification assuring users that the CompactFlash products they buy today and in the future are all interchangeable and compatible.
According to Yukichi Niwa, Senior General Manager, Canon, "At the CFA meeting, not only card suppliers but chip manufacturers and host system vendors met together and had a constructive discussion on compatibility of all CompactFlash products and the future of the CFA. The most important result of the meeting, a certification program, was adopted and a new CF logo that will be carried solely by certified products was approved as a recognizable mark of a CompactFlash card's compatibility. I am confident that the result of the meeting will benefit CompactFlash users as well as host system vendors and card suppliers in future."
Thomas Kelly CFA Co-chairman, Digital & Applied Imaging, Eastman Kodak Company said, "We are well on our way to making CompactFlash the most attractive and open standard for small format flash memory. The association's adoption of a self certification program will ensure compatibility among the current and future vendors of CompactFlash. After submitting the certification test results to the CompactFlash Association, vendors will be permitted to use the new CF logo on their products. A similar program will allow host suppliers (e.g. cameras, PDAs, sub-notebook computers) to certify that a CompactFlash card carrying the CF logo will work in their products."
Standardization and compatibility have been mainstays in the photography market for some time. A compatibility certification program and a recognizable CF logo that will give customers confidence in the digital film they buy are fundamental to the success of CompactFlash in the new digital photography market.
Other actions taken at the meeting include: the election of two new board members, Jin-Won Park of LG Semicon and Juha Christensen of Psion; and the approval of revision 1.1 of the CompactFlash Specification. This specification revision adds a card physical section covering detailed mechanical and connector specifications. The CFA also agreed to make the CompactFlash specification available to any interested party for a nominal fee.
The CompactFlash storage card is an ultra-small, removable data storage system first introduced in 1994. CompactFlash, which meets all PCMCIA standards, can be easily slipped into a low cost, passive Type II adapter card which can then be used to move data, images and audio to any standard PC card slot in computers, printers, set-top boxes and other electronic platforms.
The CFA was founded in October 1995 by Apple Computer Inc., Canon, Eastman Kodak Company, Hewlett-Packard, LG Semicon, Matsushita (Panasonic), Motorola, NEC, Polaroid, SanDisk, Seagate and Seiko Epson. The CFA now has 49 member companies. The latest firms to join include such major industry companies as FUJIFILM Microdevices and Fujitsu Computer Technology.
The CompactFlash Association is a non-profit, mutual-benefit corporation that promotes adoption of CompactFlash as a worldwide, ultra-small, removable storage standard for capturing and transporting digital data, audio and images. The CFA, which makes the CompactFlash, CFA logo and CF logo trademarks and technical specification available royalty-free to member companies, is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.
The CFA(logo) and CF(logo) are trademarks of the CFA and are licensed royalty free to its members.
The CFA is a licensee of the CompactFlash trademark and in turn will license it royalty-free to its members.
New CF logo for CompactFlash compatibility certification
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