June 2, 1997
Hitachi to Release Industry's Highest Density 30-MB " CompactFlash(TM)" Miniature Flash Memory Card, and 15-MB and 8-MB CompactFlash(TM) Cards- 70% Lower Current Consumption (standby mode) compared to Hitachi's existing CF Cards -The CF standard not only features low power for the reduced battery consumption required in portable equipment together with high portability due to the postage stamp size, but also features extremely high compatibility ("card edge compatibility") with existing systems, since it has PC-ATA(*2)and True-IDE (* 3) standard bus interface specifications. This means that the CF format is extremely likely to be widely adopted as the mainstream removable storage medium for future multimedia equipment, including both portable information equipment such as PDAs, hand-held personal computers, and digital still cameras, which will be used as multimedia terminals in the future and as a video storage medium in digital camcorders. Digital still cameras have exhibited phenomenal market growth recently. Although early products used built-in flash memory chips for storage, more recently, products that feature removable flash memory cards have become the mainstream. Moreover, with consumers looking for resolution comparable to that of photographic film, Hitachi expects that CCDs(*4) with higher pixel counts will increase and that the mainstream in this area will soon shift from SVGA(*5) to XGA(*6) resolution, corresponding to an increase from 800,000 to one million pixels. Since the amount of information that a digital still camera must handle increases with the number of pixels, the capacity of CF cards used to store that information has to be increased. To realize the same capacity in terms of number of images, namely 30 images in a standard card and 100 images in an optional card, requires card capacities of 8 MB for the standard card and 30 MB for the optional card. These cards will also prove useful in miniature portable information equipment, where there are now products that have specifications compatible with those of operating systems, such as a Windows(R) CE(*7). CF cards will be necessary both as a means for exchanging information with PCs, and for storage in applications that require large storage capacities. Hitachi has already developed and is mass-producing the company's 15-MB CF cards. The release of the new 30-MB HB 286030C2, the 15-MB HB 286015C2, and the 8-MB HB286008C2 CF products is designed to provide increased capacities and to strengthen the product line. All three products use Hitachi's 64-Mbit AND-type flash memory chip, and a controller circuit that requires only two chips as opposed to the three required by the controller used in the existing 15-MB CF product. Using stacked mounting technology, in which TCP(*8) ultrathin form factor packages are stacked in two layers in the empty space and in the flash memory space, enabled a total of four 64-Mbit flash memory chips to be mounted in two layers, thereby making it possible to achieve a 30-MB capacity in a CF card for the first time. Additionally, implementing the controller in only two chips allows these products to achieve a 70% reduction in standby mode current consumption, and a 20% reduction in normal operating mode. This can contribute to the increased battery lifetimes required in portable equipment. Future developments in this area will include a 45-MB CF card to respond to needs for even larger capacities.
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