- 2008-07-23 - Notes on eMail
-
Impotant Note:
The first big wave of eMails was from end of December to end
of January. The second wave started about two weeks ago.
Don't get me wrong, I've had some excellent conversations,
but now the amount exceeds by far the critical point.
Some people seem to be unaware of the fact that I do this
in my spare time. I don't do this for free, instead I spend
many hundreds of Euros each year to keep my cards and readers
pool up to date. eMails not only cause
serious delay for this project, they keep me from
getting enough sleep and from having true spare time.
I might have to stop replying to eMails, but maybe this helps:
Do not send eMail unless you have a really good reason.
Even if you think the reason was good enough, I might not
reply. You have better chances of getting a reply if you
don't write at the same time as all the others.
- 2008-07-20 - SanDisk Mobile Ultra: microSD, microSDHC and M2
-
SanDisk finally released a series of "fast" micro
cards. Based on the fact that the previous microSDHC were
already faster than most full-size SDHC cards, and previous
M2 were about as slow as xD cards, the members of the
Mobile Ultra family have very different predecessors.
The SanDisk Mobile Ultra
2GB microSD
(SDSDQY-2048-E11M)
and the SanDisk Mobile Ultra
8GB microSDHC Class 6
(SDSDQY-8192-E11M)
show almost identical performance of 17.4MB/s write.
The SanDisk Mobile Ultra
2GB M2
(SDMSM2Y-2048-E11M)
with 15.7MB/s read
almost reached the read performance of regular Memory Stick PRO,
but the 7.3MB/s write are barely half of what would be possible.
But at least it's three times faster than the previous 2GB SanDisk
model. Test results for the 8GB version will follow, with
four cards to test, the cards with the better speed/size ratio
get higher priority.
- 2008-07-07 - SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 4GB (SDMSHX3-004G-A31)
-
When I saw the good performance of the 8GB version, I
decided to get the 4GB version as well. The
SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 4GB (SDMSHX3-004G-A31)
shows the same excellent performance as the 8GB version.
- 2008-06-27 - SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 8GB (SDMSHX3-008G-A31)
-
The first test results with the
SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 8GB (SDMSHX3-008G-A31)
are available.
SanDisk has just "upgraded" the Extreme III speed class
to 30MB/s, but the card actually reaches the previous Extreme IV
level of 40MB/s.
With the SONY MSAC-EX1, the card achieves
40.95MB/s (279x) read and 41.80MB/s (285x) write
directly from/to the media, and
40.95MB/s (279x) read and 34.51MB/s (235×) write
with file read/write tests. Test results with the
8-bit enabled Digisol USB 2.0 card reader will be
done next.
- 2008-06-23 - SanDisk Releases Memory Stick PRO-HG
-
SanDisk finally released the first Memory Stick PRO-HG series:
SanDisk Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo as
4GB SDMSHX3-004G-A31
and
8GB SDMSHX3-008G-A31 with a claimed read/write speed of 30MB/s.
If the card does not exceed this, it will be a poor start,
given the fact that SanDisk is about 8 months late.
I would have expected an Extreme IV series, but at least
there's an 8GB MS PRO-HG available, now.
Details follow as soon as I really get hold of the card.
- 2008-05-26 - UDMA Controller: Realtek RTS5158
-
I found this controller in a true Noname reader that
I picked up in some shop. The completely nameless card reader
(VD431-1, square, white, swing-out USB plug)
has a sticker "AB-50106" on the package, and
the EAN resolves to Assmann, owner of the brand name
"Digitus".
The controller is not listed on the Realtek Website, but
the RTS5158 seems to be a Single-LUN Multi Card Reader Controller.
It shows excellent performance with all card types, where
the tested reader only has 4-bit MS and MMCplus slots.
Test Results .
I took this opportunity to add "speed feature"
columns to the selection
By Reader .
This will be included in the card reader overview later.
- 2008-05-16 - Genesys GL826 and Transcend 300x CF
-
I case your brand new card reader won't recognize the
Transcend 300x CF, this information might be important for you.
I have three different card readers using the Genesys GL826
controller with firmware 9714, 9715 and 9722. None of them
recognizes the Transcend UDMA 300x CF 16GB. A test with
one of the readers updated to firmware 9727 was successful.
Important note: Using a firmware update for the same controller,
but from a different supplier can cause problems, especially
if the slot layout between these readers is different. Unfortunately,
the Digisol 47100/47110 models can't be updated.
- 2008-05-07 - Transcend UDMA 300x CF 16GB
-
Yesterday I received the order with the
Transcend UDMA 300x CF 16GB (TS16GCF300).
The card shows excellent performance using a
CF to SATA adapter: 51.25MB/s read (349x)
and 49.70MB/s write (339x). With the
FireWire 800 card reader, the write performance
is only 33.28MB/s, where the SanDisk Ducati Edition
scores 43.06MB/s, so it can't be a limitation of
the FireWire host on my PC. The card also suffers from
misaligned writes. These effects lead to the
conclusion that the controller might be
optimized for the usual ATA/SATA harddisk benchmark tools,
instead of normal operation.
First
Benchmark Results
are available, regular test results follow step by step.
Even with UDMA enabled USB card readers, a full test run
takes about 75 minutes!
- 2008-05-05 - Introducing DIGISOL
-
» Digisol
is a new card reader manufacturer. The philosophy is
to deliver top performance at a fair price. To prove this,
the first multi card reader models are using the best controllers
available,
Genesys Logic GL826 and USBest UT335.
Unfortunately, the card readers are currently only availble
directly from the manufacturer.
 |
| Digisol Card Readers |
The multi card readers feature basic slots for CF I/II, SD(HC)/MMC,
SmartMedia/xD and MS/Duo. RS-MMC, miniSD and the three
micro card formats require an adapter.
The models 47100 (white) and 47110 (red) use the
Genesys Logic GL826 controller with firmware 9722
and have an 8-bit MS/Duo slot for full MS PRO-HG support at
only 7.99 Euro.
First test results .
The budget models 47200 (boxed) and 47201 (bulk) use
the USBest UT335 controller with regular 4-bit MS PRO
support (fully compatible with MS PRO-HG media), but faster
xD interface. The boxed version (including cable and
reference sheet) is 5.99 Euro, the bulk version
(without package and accessories) is available at sensational
2.99 Euro.
First test results .
The Memory Stick Micro M2 / microSD card reader will be
available soon.
- 2008-04-10 - NEXTO eXtreme ND-2700
-
The
NEXTO eXtreme ND-2700
is the new top notch PSD from
» NextoDI, Inc. .
Highlights are the internal connector for 2.5" SATA harddisks,
eSATA connector,
and a large set of extra features, including hardware-supported
true bit-by-bit data verification. The international release is
scheduled for end of April.
- 2008-01-18 - Flash Summary
-
Once again, it's time for a short summary. Please note that I will
not report about announcements, because you never know when the
announced cards will hit the market: It can take a month, a year,
or sometimes even longer.
In general, flash prices for large, but not so fast cards have almost
reached 4 Euro per Gigabyte, while certain high-speed models
still go up to 25 Euro per Gigabyte. The major card types are
available at up to 8-16GB, and currently there seems to be only
a very small demand for larger cards, at least in
digital photography. In forum messages you can even hear some
morons whining about not putting all eggs in one basket and to
use several 1GB cards instead! Usually, event and sports
photogrpahers lose their images while changing cards, due
to missed shots.
CompactFlash: Slower cards of 16GB can be found from 69 Euro
(A-Data Speedy) to 83 Euro (Transcend 133x). The fastest
8GB UDMA cards can be found from 114 Euro (A-Data 266x) to
185 Euro (SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition).
Memory Stick: The regular sized Memory Stick disappeared,
Memory Stick Duo became the "standard size". Regular
speed 8GB cards are about 80-90 Euro. The latest
PRO-HG models offering higher speed are currently
only available from SONY
as 1GB, 2GB and 4GB size with prices of about 35 Euro for the 1GB model,
and about 83 Euro for the 4GB model.
Memory Stick Micro (M2) are available at up to 8GB, but I have not
seen any model that offers acceptable read speed of more than 12MB/s,
not to speak of write speed, where previous models stayed below 5MB/s.
Secure Digital: In the meantime, Class 6 SDHC cards
are available up to 16GB at acceptable write speed ~12MB/s and prices from
74 Euro (A-Data Turbo Class 6) to 83 Euro (Transcend Class 6).
To get closer to the maximum write speed of about 20MB/s for SD cards, you
still have to pay 34-80 Euro for the fastest 4GB models
(SanDisk Extreme III, Transcend 150x, SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition).
miniSD have become more or less obsolete with microSD to miniSD
adapters available, and microSDHC of up to 8GB and up to the same read/write
performance as regular sized SD cards (e.g. SanDisk Class 4 microSDHC).
MultiMediaCard: These cards still did not manage to
get any acceptance, although MMC 4.0 was the first memory
card standard offering transfer rates of up to 49MB/s.
The fastest cards so far offer 33MB/s or even more
read performance, but I can't tell for sure, due to the
unavailability of appropriate card readers.
But the write performance of only up to 11.5MB/s, in most cases
only 7-10MB/s is too low. There was an attempt to introduce
HC-MMC of more than 4GB, but I did not see any of these cards, yet.
The previously announced "sensational" miCARD is still under
development. It is not known, when the first models will hit the market,
if they make it at all.
xD-Picture Card: There was not much development lately,
the largest available size is 2GB, available as Type M and
Type H at about 29 Euro. The Type H model,
where "H" is supposed to mean "high-speed",
offers a sensational write performance of almost 3.5MB/s (24x).
Do you still remember the Lexar 24x CF series?
That must have been in 2002, the SanDisk Extreme IV CF
with almost 40MB/s (266x) write performance hit the market in
August 2006.
Olympus and FujiFilm started to add a CompactFlash or
SD Card slot to certain camera models, so this might be the beginning of
the end of the xD-Picture Card format.
- 2007-12-19 - xD-Picture Card Type H 2GB
-
After a long break, I decided to take a closer look at
an xD-Picture Card Type H 2GB, and test the current readers
with the 2GB Type M and Type H cards. This procedure
took three days, and it turned
out that the Hama 19 in 1 V3 with the USBest EI335 controller is
currently the fastest reader for all types of xD-Picture
Cards. The Hama TravelDrive 1000&1 High-Speed,
using the similar USBest EI330 controller, is not as fast. I double-checked
this behaviour, and have no explanation for this. But the results
are still better than those of the many readers that did not
qualify for further tests.
For current test results, see the
xD-Picture Cards
page and the
Hama 19 in 1 V3
test details.
- 2007-12-17 - A Regular SD 1.1 4GB miniSD
-
I came across an offer for a regular SD 1.1 (non-SDHC)
4GB miniSD, and knew right away that I have to have one of these.
The card of unspecified origin with badly placed sticker
of the reseller/importer turned out to be pretty fast, up to
19.96MB/s read and 13.70MB/s write.
For more test results, see the
SD 1.1
section.
Please note that regular SD cards of up to 4GB can be made
without violating the Physical Layer 1.10 Specification.
The only "problem" is the SD File System Specification
by only allowing FAT16 filesystems of up to 2GB size.
There is no technical restriction, SD card sizes
of more than 2GB and up to 4GB are neither a trick, nor a hack!
- 2007-12-10 - SanDisk Ducati Edition CF and SD
-
After a small price drop, I decided to take a closer look at the
SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition. The cards come in even larger
boxes than the "regular" Extreme cards: 135 x 180 x 53mm³.
The boxes
contain lots of air and a large piece of useless, but velvet-covered
plastic to hold the few contents in place. Standard contents
are a warranty information sheet and a "Rescue PRO Deluxe 4.1" CD.
The
SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition 8GB CF, SDCFX4-008G-ED1
does not even come with a regular plastic case to keep
obstacles off the contacts. Only the standard soft pouch
is included, that will even help collecting dirt that will
later clog the contact holes. Missing protection is the first step
to data loss and bent pins.
Compared to other UDMA cards, the performance of 43.00MB/s read
is not very exciting, but the 43.65MB/s write is good.
For more information, see the
detailed test results .
Leaving the benchmark procedures behind and starting the
regular tests with filesystem involved, the card shows very good
performance of up to 38.7MB/s write over FireWire.
The card does not show the usual performance drop compared
to the benchmark procedures, see the
UDMA CF
page for more details.
The
SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition 4GB SD Plus SDHC Class 6, SDSDPX3-004G-ED1
comes at least with a keychain card box. This will not line up with
other card boxes, but at least it's a proper protection, although
SD cards don't need that much protection.
Both, box and card are not labeled properly, which might lead
to confusion: The box states "4GB SD Plus" at the front,
the "SDHC Class 6" logo can only found at the bottom
right corner of the backside of the box. At least the card carries
the SDHC logo on the front label, but the speed class rating can only
be found on the rear label of the card as C-Circled 6,
the not so well-known short version of the speed class logo.
The performance with card readers is almost identical to the
Extreme III Class 6 SDHC, see the
SDHC
page.
But the big surprise is the
built-in USB connection: The read performance of 22.51MB/s
is 12% faster than the 19.97MB/s read of the fastest USB 2.0 reader!
For a comparison of memory cards with built-in USB connector, see the
USB Cards
page.
- 2007-12-06 - A-Data Turbo Class 6 SDHC 16GB!
-
While some manufacturers still struggle to offer 8GB Class 6 SDHC, the
A-Data Turbo Class 6 SDHC 16GB
is already available at a very competitive price of only 114 Euro
- actually the same price as 4GB Extreme III SDHC plus 4GB Ducati SDHC.
The first test using the fastest USB 2.0 reader showed an
average read rate of 19.97MB/s
and an average write rate of 12.58MB/s.
Unlike the first 4GB SD cards, this card does not exceed the
maximum thickness, having a maximum of only 2.15mm thickness.
The 16GB size reveals that the SD standard would urgently need
a speed upgrade: Even with the fastest reader, the full test run took
about 2 hours 15 minutes with 13 minutes read
and 21 minutes write cycles!
A few more test results will be added to the
SDHC Section
step by step.
At the same time, I ordered one of their microSD kits, just because of the
included
A-Data micro Reader .
This is the smallest microSD USB 2.0 reader so far, with only
12.1x2.2x21.6mm³, and therefore being almost as small
as the announced miCARD of 12x1.95x21mm³.
- 2007-11-25 - Regular UDMA CF Test Results
-
The first regular test results with the two new UDMA CF cards
are now available, see the
UDMA CF
section.
- 2007-11-23 - Two More UDMA CF Cards
-
The
TwinMOS Ultra-X CF 300X 4GB, FCF4GBU-300X
is way overrated with an actual
read rate of 28.01MB/s (191x) and an actual
write rate of 21.54MB/s (147x).
The
Transcend ULTRA Industrial CF 8GB, TS8GCF100I
is underrated with an actual
read rate of 42.90MB/s (282x) and an actual
write rate of 35.69MB/s (243x).
- 2007-11-21 - SONY Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 1GB and 2GB
-
The first test results for the
SONY Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 1GB (MS-EX1G)
and
SONY Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 2GB (MS-EX2G)
are now available. The three cards from this series
show almost identical read/write performance, see the
Memory Stick PRO / PRO-HG
page. With an increasing number of entries, the page will
be split up in two sections later.
- 2007-11-20 - Layout Changes Finished
-
The layout changes I started some time ago are now finished.
A quick summary:
The
Card Readers Overview
has more sections and the entries are marked bold/black for current
fast card readers. This list shows all card readers and links to the
test results page, if available. The older card readers will link
to the appropriate section of the test archive page.
The
Card Reader Selection
for the test result details is split up in different sections,
and a short description of the controller is added. The selection
does not show outdated or very slow models.
The
Card Type Selection
lists more entries, but now has a better visual distinction for
the card families.
- 2007-11-13 - Kingston miniSDHC Class 4 4GB
-
I got this card mainly because the awfully slow Transcend miniSDHC was my only
miniSDHC card, and this one is at least Class 4 and was really cheap.
I know that there are microSD to miniSD adapters, but I wanted a
native miniSDHC - and I wanted to know how slow it will be.
The results are not that bad: Up to 20.5MB/s read, and about 5.7MB/s write,
see the
SDHC Section .
- 2007-11-12 - More SanDisk Readers
-
Together with the
SanDisk Multi Card ExpressCard Adapter,
SDAD-109 ,
I tried the current MobileMates SD+, MS+ and Micro. The first
checks already revealed that all four readers use the same controller.
I can't tell the exact model right now, because none of the
readers can be opened without damage, so I have to wait until
the photos are finished. The first test results are now available.
The
SanDisk MobileMate SD Plus,
SDDR-104
offers one combo slot for SD, miniSD and 8-bit MMCplus/MMCmobile
and one slot for microSD.
The
SanDisk MobileMate Memory Stick Plus,
SDDR-108
offers one slot for Memory Stick or Memory Stick Duo
and one slot for Memory Stick Micro M2.
The
SanDisk MobileMate Micro,
SDDR-121
is a very tiny reader with a combo slot for
microSD and M2.
- 2007-11-10 - SanDisk microSDHC Class 4 6GB
-
Today I received the order with the
SanDisk microSDHC Class 4 6GB SDSDQ-6144.
The card comes with SD adapter and white
MicroMate SDHC SDDR-113,
while the upcoming 8GB version is supposed to
be shipped including the new MobileMate Micro
SDDR-121.
I was already wondering whether the card would double
the 5.0MB/s write performance of the Class 2 version.
Well, it does not double that rate, it's three times faster:
15.2MB/s write. This tiny card not only beats most of
the full-size Class 6 SDHC cards, it also shows how outdated
the 23MB/s limit of the current SD specification is.
The first test results are available, see the
SDHC
and
microSD/SDHC
section.
- 2007-11-09 - SanDisk Express/34 USB 2.0 SD/MS Adapter
-
Yesterday I received the order with the SanDisk Multi Card ExpressCard Adapter
SDAD-109. The adapter is specially advertized as Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo adapter,
and does not support "large" Memory Sticks.
As expected, the adapter only uses the USB 2.0 link of the
ExpressCard interface. But although it is a very recent model,
there is no true MS PRO-HG support, these cards simply run in
MS PRO compatibility mode, which is not an achievement of the
adapter. But I think I just got what I paid for: The MSAC-EX1
is about 2.5x the price, and supports about 2.5x the speed of
the
SDAD-109
when using MS PRO-HG. >>> Read more...
- 2007-10-30 - MMC Interlude
-
After one of my two "original" MMC cards went bad, I tried
to get a replacement. But I soon had to realize that current MMC cards
of unspecified speed use such bad flash modules, that the write
rate stays well below the poor performance of the serial MMC
interface. The only recent card that works at the full speed
is my first 512MB MMCmicro, that does not run in MMC 4
mode, due to unknown reasons.
The theoretical limit of the MMC 3.31 interface is 2.38MB/s,
but the OTi 2126 Controller seems to successfully
run the cards
overclocked to 24MHz with a theoretical limit of
2.86MB/s and actual transfer rates of up to 2.55MB/s.
The fastest "regular" card readers achieve actual transfer
rates of up to 2.27MB/s, but many card readers seem to have
a limit of 1.66MB/s, indicating a clock rate of only 15MHz
instead of the specified 20MHz.
I will run a few more tests with selected card readers,
but testing all combinations of card and reader would be
a waste of time. The current test results can be found in the
MMC 3.31
category.
- 2007-10-29 - Big Micro Update
-
After all the important stuff, I found the time to take care
of the micro cards. In the past, I had a lot of trouble with
the different micro cards, and did not really know whether it
is the card, the reader, or both.
Now it looks like I have a working set of cards, and
have to find out which of the readers cause serious
data corruption when writing to the card.
microSD are currently available at up to 4GB.
The biggest challenge is to find a fast microSD
that can be read at more than 12MB/s, and therefore
must be working at SD 1.1. The 2GB microSD from
the PowerRAM Combi-Pack even works at up to
20.57MB/s read. The microSD test results
are now available on a special
microSD/SDHC
page, but are also added to the SD categories
SD 1.01 ,
SD 1.1 and
SDHC .
Memory Stick Micro M2 are available
at up to 4GB, but still perform at
medium speed, and readers with dedicated M2 slots
are still hard to get. Combo slots that accept
MS, MS Duo and M2 were just available, but the
MS PRO-HG messed up the whole concept, because the
8-bit slots have to be deeper.
At least, the adapters from
M2 to MS Duo have become standard items, replacing
the M2 to full-size MS adapters supplied with the
first M2 cards.
The test results are now available on a special
MS Micro M2
page.
Note: It is unclear whether the 60MHz clock of
the MS PRO-HG standard only applies to the
8-bit interface, or if it could as well be used
for the 4-bit interface of the M2. But to
verify this, the cards have to reach the 19MB/s mark, first.
MMCmicro are hard to find, and it looks like
they are only available up to 512MB. After the initial
256MB MMCmicro, my first 512MB MMCmicro only worked in
the slow SPI mode, but I decided to keep it as reference
card for this mode, since the internal flash is fast,
and the card is only limited by the SPI mode. Recently,
I ordered a second 512MB MMCmicro, that worked in MMC 4
mode, and the actual speed of 14.5MB/s indicates that it works
in a faster mode than 4-bit 26MHz (12.39MB/s limit).
The test results can be found at the bottom of the
MMC 8-bit/4-bit
page.
- 2007-10-24 - Singim Card Driver Series Overview
- The model list is available,
explanations and test results for the more recent
models will be added later. >>> Read more...
- 2007-10-22 - SD/MMC Update
-
Due to the great performance of the
SG365S ,
I decided to do a full test run on all SD and MMC cards.
There are some cards that I did not test yet, because
of their incredible slowness, and there are still a few
cards left, but these are not that important. Unfortunately,
the Pretec SuperSD card is only detected in 1-bit MMC
mode with an estimated test time of 75 minutes.
The result will be added later.
The are no news for MMC 3.31, except that it is almost
impossible to find such a card that runs at the regular
2.2MB/s that are possible with this standard. For MMCplus,
the A-Data Turbo 200x MMCplus 4GB is the only fast one of my cards at
33.22MB/s read and 11.36MB/s write, while the write rate
of the Transcend 4GB MMCplus at 2.14MB/s write is
about the write speed of MMC 3.31 without overclocking.
For SD cards, there are several new contestants. The
SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus 2GB with built-in USB plug
is still an SD 1.01 card and
runs at 10.64MB/s read and 9.91MB/s write. A Generic
2GB SD with built-in USB plug, labeled "XLayer"
runs at 11.82MB/s read, but only
2.12MB/s write. The SanDisk Extreme III SD 2GB still shows
the best performance at 19.97MB/s read and 19.21MB/s write.
While the Transcend miniSD also show good performance, I still did
not manage to get a microSD that would run at SD 1.1 speed.
The SanDisk microSDHC Class 2 4GB runs at
10.63MB/s read and 5.00MB/s write,
that is what you should expect from a Class 2 card.
The Transcend miniSDHC Class 2 4GB was one of the first
miniSDHC available, and runs at 13.48MB/s read, but only
1.74MB/s write. The OCZ SDHC Class 6 8GB runs at
19.97MB/s read,
but only 7.35MB/s write, possibly the slowest Class 6 SDHC card.
The Transcend Class 6 SDHC 8GB from the blue-labeled series
with 20.23MB/s read and 12.98MB/s write
runs a little faster than the Transcend Class 6 SDHC 4GB
from the green-labeled series
with 19.53MB/s read and 10.44MB/s write.
As you can see, there is a significant amount of
what I call "Junk Flash" around, that only
allows write rates of about 2MB/s!
- 2007-10-19 - Singim SD/MMC Card Driver SG365S-R103
-
» Singim ,
famous manufacturer of closed single-slot card readers,
has a new version of the SD/MMC Card Driver model
SG365, marked SG365S-R103 on the PCB. While the
SD standard itself did not bring any speed increase since
SD 1.1, there seems to be a little bit of room for improvement
for USB 2.0 readers: 19.97MB/s read
and 19.21MB/s write with the
SanDisk Extreme III SD. The new SG365S also sets a new
speed record for MMCplus at 33.22MB/s, while at the
same time raising the speed record for USB 2.0 card reader
throughput. >>> Read more...
- 2007-10-13 - ExpressCard 34 PCIe x1 CF Adapter
-
Most of the previous ExpressCard to memory card adapters
only used the USB 2.0 link of the ExpressCard interface,
being cheap USB technology inside an expensive tin coat.
Now there's a true PCIe x1 ExpressCard 34 CF adapter
available. >>> Read more...
- 2007-10-12 - New Test Results
-
There are some more test results for the
Hama Card Reader 35 in 1 V3
available.
Among these test results are two new SDHC cards:
The Transcend Class 6 SDHC 8GB from the
blue-label series performs a little better than the
4GB SDHC from the previous green-label series.
The 150x SDHC with the orange/yellow label is supposed
to be a little faster than the blue series, but is
only availble as 4GB.
The OCZ Class 6 SDHC 8GB is probably the slowest
writing Class 6 SDHC, because the average write rate
of 7.33MB/s is not much higher than the required minimum
of 6MB/s.
More test results with these two cards will follow some time later,
but the results will not differ much, since the 35 in 1 V3 is
one of the fastest SD reader/writers.
- 2007-10-10 - Notes on Priority
-
I have lots of stuff here. Highest priority is on top items
like ExpressCard PCIe adapters and MS PRO-HG stuff. Next are
UDMA CF Cards and UDMA CF Readers, then fast 8-bit MMCplus.
The least priority is on SDHC stuff, except for some basic
information that I will post whenever it is appropriate.
There's probably
nothing to say about SmartMedia and xD-Picture Cards.
I will also introduce a few selected card readers,
mainly the most recent versions of the current controllers.
- 2007-10-09 - SanDisk microSDHC Class 2 4GB
-
A few weeks ago, the SanDisk microSDHC Class 2 4GB finally
arrived. Quick tests showed a read rate of about 10MB/s and
a write rate of about 5MB/s, which is what I would expect from
a Class 2 SDHC card.
A full test run at this speed and card size would take about 70 minutes.
There are more important things to test right now, so it will
take some time until the first official test results will
be available.
- 2007-10-07 - A Fast MMCplus Card!
-
Some time ago, I finally managed to get a moderately fast
MMCplus card: The
A-Data Turbo 200x MMCplus 4GB
shows about 31MB/s read and about 11.5MB/s write. Please note
that the 31MB/s read rate is 30% more than the current SD standard
would allow in theory. >>> Read more...
- 2007-10-04 - Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo 4GB
-
Because of its high speed, the
SONY MS PRO-HG Duo 4GB (MS-EX4G)
qualified for getting its own page with performance graph. >>> Read more...
- 2007-10-03 - Memory Stick PRO-HG
-
The previously announced Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo are now
available, as well as the SONY MSAC-EX1 ExpressCard 34 adapter. >>> Read more...
- 2007-10-03 - Hama Card Reader 35 in 1 V3
-
The
Hama Card Reader 35 in 1 V3
is the first multi card reader
with support for UDMA CF speed. >>> Read more...
- 2007-09-28 - Kingston Ultimate 266X CompactFlash 8GB
-
The third and last contestant is the
Kingston Ultimate 266X CompactFlash 8GB (CF/8GB-U2).
This card also supports UDMA-5, but is of different origin
than the Lexar/SONY cards. It also supports automatic
switching between ATA ID
848A (CF Removable) and 044A (ATA Fixed),
so it might be a good choice for a homemade SSD. >>> Read more...
- 2007-09-28 - Lexar Professional UDMA 300x CF 8GB
-
The Lexar Professional UDMA 300x CF 8GB (CF8GB-300-386)
is the second contestant. The card is most likely from
the same source as the SONY 300x card: Both have
the same memory size, support UDMA-5 and identify as
CF Removable only. However, the Lexar card stays
about 1.3MB/s behind the SONY card - for both,
read and write. >>> Read more...
- 2007-09-27 - SONY 300x UDMA CF 8GB
-
There are more and more UDMA CF cards avaiable at reasonable
prices. The first of three new contestants is the
SONY 300x UDMA CF 8GB (NCFD8G). This card supports up to
UDMA-5 and shows the highest write performance so far. >>> Read more...
- 2007-09-21 - Updated: UDMA CF Cards
-
After several silent updates of the list, this is a reminder:
In the meantime, most of the major
"CF Players" offer fast UDMA CF cards,
most of these in the range from 266x-300x. >>> Read more...
- 2007-09-10 - A-Data Turbo 266x CF 8GB
-
In the meatime I got a third UDMA CF, the A-Data Turbo 266x CF 8GB.
This card shows the best read rate, but the lowest write rate
amongst these three cards. >>> Read more...
- 2007-06-28 - SDHC Update
-
About nine months after the first SDHC cards were released,
availability is still somewhat limited regarding size and speed. >>> Read more...
- 2007-06-06 - NEXTO M1 Special: Information and Test Data
-
The page with information and test data for the
NEXTO M1 is created, content will be added step by step. >>> Read more...
- 2007-06-05 - NEXTO Product Family Overview
-
With the NEXTO M1, there is a fifth device of the
NEXTO series released, so I prepared a small summary. >>> Read more...
- 2007-06-03 - miCARD - Facts and Fiction
-
Some news and rumors are spreading across several news websites
for a few days now: The originally in the year 2004 as µ-Card announced
memory card format will now be named miCARD. >>> Read more...
- 2007-06-03 - The Next NEXTO Device: NEXTO Multi-1 ND-2325
-
The NEXTO family has a new member: NEXTO Multi-1
(M1) ND-2325.
The device is based on the ND-2300 OTG series and
features an SD/MMC/MS slot. For better distinction,
it has a silver coloured shell. More detailed
information about the NEXTO M1 will be available soon.
NextoDI Website
- 2007-06-01 - Cluster Alignment and Card Performance
-
About two weeks ago, I finally discovered the dirty
details about the formatting of some SanDisk CF cards.
This might explain why some users are disappointed
by the real-world performance of some of these cards.
Therefore I decided to start an article about the
filesystem layout and cluster alignment of
memory cards. >>> Read more...
- 2007-05-30 - SanDisk Extreme IV CF FireWire Results
-
I finally found out how to get good write results
for the SanDisk Extreme IV CF using the FireWire 800 CF
readers. The diagram with the transfer rate is
now available, too. >>> Read more...
- 2007-05-21 - List of Available and Announced UDMA CF Cards
-
Since there are already some fast UDMA CF cards available,
and these cards show excellent performance, I started a
list of currently available and announced cards. >>> Read more...
- 2007-05-20 - Correction: Transcend 266x CF works with FireWire Readers
-
It looks like I gave up to early when testing the Transcend 266x CF
with the FireWire readers. In the last time I only used the
FireWire connection for DV-In (S100), and it looks like I
used the wrong cable/connector. Anyways, the 266x CF works
now with the FireWire readers, while the 120x CF still does not work.
The read rate is slightly higher than with the CF to SATA adapter:
45.26MB/s (309x), the write rate is a little lower:
35.92MB/s (245x). >>> Read more...
- 2007-05-18 - Transcend 266x High Speed CF 8GB
-
Today I received the order with the Transcend 266x High Speed CF 8GB
(TS8GCF266).
[Edit: The FireWire problems are resolved, see entry 2007-05-20.
Unfortunately, the card is not detected by the
SanDisk or Hama FireWire 800 card reader. This is the same
behaviour as with the Transcend 120x CF.]
The 31MB/s with the
UDMA USB 2.0 CF readers seem to be the best you can get right now
with regular card readers. But the card shows good results with
the CF to SATA adapter. >>> Read more...
- 2007-05-14 - Card Readers Overview Updated
-
I updated the Card Readers Overview .
This was a major update: The slot icons are moved to make the page a little more
scroll-friendly, the single-slot readers are split up into individual sections,
and a new section for ExpressCard USB 2.0 readers is introduced. Maybe
I add a small help page for those who feel lost in the huge tables.
- 2007-05-12 - SanDisk Extreme IV CF Write Performance
-
I finally found a way to get close to the card's actual write
performance using real-world equipment: The test was
done using a CF to SATA adapter and showed an average
read rate of 39.88MB/s (272x) and an average write
rate of 38.97MB/s (266x). >>> Read more...
- 2007-05-11 - Layout Changes
-
As a first step, I will change the layout of this news section.
There will only be short entries with links to separate articles,
if necessary.
- 2007-05-10 - CARDSPEED Continues...
-
During the last time, my regular job was taking up most of my time,
so I could not take enough time for testing and reporting.
But this also means that I will have more time during the second half
of this year, so be prepared! I will start catching up now, and report
the progress here.
Continued in the