Rewritable removable memory or function card developed by SanDisk in 1994. In contrast with SmartMedia or xD-Picture Card technology, it has a built-in controller. The newer CF type II (CF/2) cards are 5 mm thick, the CF type I are only 3.3 mm thick. (PCMCIA-Cards/PC Cards)

Type of data storage device, used in portable electronic devices. As a storage device, it typically uses flash memory in a standardized enclosure, and was first specified and produced by SanDisk Corporation in 1994. The physical format is now used for a variety of devices. There are two main subdivisions of CF cards, Type I and the slightly thicker Type II cards. There are two, soon to be three, main speeds of cards including the original CF, CF High Speed (using CF+/CF2.0), and an even faster CF3.0 standard that is being adopted as of 2005. The CF Type II slot is used by Microdrives and some other devices.

Compact Flash cards are smaller, more durable and can hold more data than other types of flash memory cards. CompactFlash cards are also about one-third the size of a PC card and can be used ub Type I & II PC card slots with an adapter. One thing that distinguishes CompactFlash cards is that they have their own controller onboard so that cameras, PDAs and other devices that use the cards are not burdened with the controller software. CompactFlash cards comes is sizes from 2MB to 64MB. See PC Card and SmartMedia Card.

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