Delkin Devices announced a new line of Black CFexpress Type B 4.0 memory cards that rely on a different type of flash memory that it says makes them just as fast as competitors but more reliable.
As manufacturers all get on board with CFexpress 4.0, which is a lot faster than the previous CFexpress 2.0 standard, it will get harder for them to stand out from one another based on anything other than price. Brand name goes a long way, but for many photographers and filmmakers, the bottom line will come down to cost.
That’s where Delkin is hoping to make inroads. The company does promise up to 1.3TB of capacity with its new CFexpress cards along with up to 3650 MB/s read speeds and 3250 MB/s write speeds (with a sustained 820 to 2,150 MB/s), but that’s not where it’s focusing its marketing efforts. No, instead Delkin wants photographers to focus on the kind of flash memory it’s using.
That’s a bold choice considering how general knowledge of NAND flash isn’t particularly deep. Still, Delkin is pinning its hopes on what it calls pSLC NAND flash.
“NAND flash is a non-volatile memory chip that can hold data even without power, and it is at the heart of all memory cards. Manufacturers have tried to make it more dense and smaller in order to store more data for less money, but the ultimate result is a reduction in longevity and performance. This is quite the opposite of what is good for NAND memory cards. Photographers and videographers need to store photos and videos quickly, yet on a robust card that has longevity,” Delkin says.
“SLC flash is the most rugged and expensive type of flash due to its incredible endurance and performance, although its biggest downside is high cost and relatively small capacity size. The latest version of SLC that keeps the longevity, but improves the capacity (and price), is called pSLC (Pseudo SLC).”
Delkin is using pSLC in its line of CFexpress Type B 4.0 cards as well as its SD Black V90 memory cards.
“pSLC can read twice as fast as TLC (Triple-Level Cell) or even QLC (Quad-Level Cell), which is used by most card makers today. In addition, it can also be written up to six times as fast. pSLC has a life span between 7,000 and 28,000 TBW (Terabytes Written) depending on card capacity, in comparison to other flash types that only support 300 to 2,000 TBW before they begin to lose data and slow down. Yes, NAND flash does not last forever — something the industry does not talk about,” Delkin concludes.
Because it’s using pSLC, Delkin promises that its cards will have the most reliability, performance, and endurance compared to any other card on the market. That’s a bold claim, and one that will be difficult to prove — or disprove — via conventional memory card testing.
Delkin’s new cards are available today starting at $180 for 256GB and up to $850 for the highest-capacity 1.3TB option.
Image credits: Delkin Devices