New PCIe-based CompactFlash standard promises higher speed, greater capacity

Three tech giants have come together to propose a new CompactFlash standard that is based on the PCI Express interface which promises higher speeds and greater capacities.

The new PCIe-based standard, proposed to the CompactFlash Association by Sony, SanDisk and Nikon, offers some significant improvements over the current standard which is based on the ageing PATA standard. There's a massive increase in throughput, up from around 165MB/s for the current standard to a whopping 500MB/s. This means that photographers will experience less lag when snapping high-resolution images.

This new standard will also bring with it a capacity boost, allowing up to 2TB of storage per card. Again, great for those who shoot a lot of photos in megabyte munching RAW format or those working with HD video.

Good news for all you professional and prosumer photographers out there.