Since the development of the first Swissbit CompactFlash™ cards back in 2001, the largest independent manufacturer of memory and storage solutions in Europe has continuously launched new product-extensions as part of its long-term support strategy. Swissbit is currently promoting the C-500, C-56 and C-50 models – its latest CompactFlash™ product ranges that introduce state-of-the-art flash memory technology into the old data media format. Even though PATA was replaced by faster interfaces a long time ago in the computer market, there is still a high demand for CompactFlash™ cards for systems that remain in use for decades and are still supplied as new in their original versions. These are mainly employed in automation, train controls as well as network and communication systems.

This new family of industrial CompactFlash™ cards comprises the C-500 range with SLC NAND, the C-56 range with everbit™ pSLC technology and the cost-effective C-50 with durabit™ MLC memory. All three Swissbit ranges offer a latest generation high-performance controller and firmware that is optimized for industrial and NetCom applications. The robust and highly reliable products comply with the advanced industrial temperature class -40 to 85 °C.

Designed for Durability

These new CompactFlash™ cards with capacities between 512 MB and 128 GB are based on state-of-the-art NAND technology, which guarantees their availability for the remaining product lifetime of the systems. The cards are CFA-6.1 compatible and support UDMA6 and PIO6 modes. A special feature is the page-organized firmware that, compared to previous similar products, increases the write data rate for small data packets by factor 50 to 70 and the permitted write data volume to twice or three times the volume of previous solutions.
All 3 variants come with a data maintenance mode that regularly checks the data stability, even for memory areas that are rarely written to, and if necessary, re-writes them to ensure long-term data retention.

C-5x products are manufactured at the Swissbit plant in Berlin with rigorous and strict final testing performed on every single card. Samples of both C-500 and C-56 are available and C-50 will follow shortly by the end of the year.