page_title: CompactFlash
section_title: Microdrives
hierarchical_section_title: CompactFlash / Technical details / Microdrives
caption_attribution_description: English: 1 GByte IBM MicroDrive. Français&#160;: Un microdrive (disque dur au format CompactFlash développé par IBM) de 1 GigaByte.
context_page_description: CompactFlash is a flash memory mass storage device used mainly in portable electronic devices. The format was specified and the devices were first manufactured by SanDisk in 1994.
  CompactFlash became one of the most successful of the early memory card formats, surpassing Miniature Card and SmartMedia. Subsequent formats, such as MMC/SD, various Memory Stick formats, and xD-Picture Card offered stiff competition. Most of these cards are smaller than CompactFlash while offering comparable capacity and speed. Proprietary memory card formats for use in professional audio and video, such as P2 and SxS, are faster, but physically larger and more costly.
  CompactFlash remains popular and is supported by many professional devices and high-end consumer devices. As of 2017, both Canon and Nikon use CompactFlash for their flagship digital still cameras. Canon also chose CompactFlash as the recording medium for its professional high-definition tapeless video cameras. Ikegami professional video cameras can record digital video onto CompactFlash cards through an adaptor.
  Traditional CompactFlash cards use the Parallel ATA interface, but in 2008, a variant of CompactFlash, CFast was announced.
context_section_description: Microdrive was a brand of tiny hard disks—about 25 mm (1 inch) wide—in a CompactFlash Type II package. The first was developed and released in 1999 by IBM, with a capacity of 170 MB. IBM sold its disk drive division, including the Microdrive trademark, to Hitachi in 2002. Comparable hard disks were also made by other vendors, such as Seagate and Sony. They were available in capacities of up to 8 GB but have been superseded by flash memory in cost, capacity, and reliability, and are no longer manufactured.
  As mechanical devices, CF HDDs drew more current than flash memory's 100 mA maximum.  Early versions drew up to 500 mA, but more recent ones drew under 200 mA for reads and under 300 mA for writes. (Some devices used for high speed—such as Readyboost, which had no low-power standby mode—exceeded the 500 mA maximum of the Type II standard.) CF HDDs were also susceptible to damage from physical shock or temperature changes. However, CF HDDs had a longer lifespan of write cycles than early flash memories.
  The iPod mini, Nokia N91, iriver H10 (5 or 6 GB model), PalmOne LifeDrive, and Rio Carbon used a Microdrive to store data.
caption: IBM 1 GB Microdrive
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