Wise, a member of the Compact Flash Association (CFA), has joined the USB4 generation with its new Wise RD-40CXB CFexpress 4.0 Type B card reader.
When used alongside a certified USB4 cable, which ships with the reader, the Wise RD-40CXB promises four times the maximum theoretical transfer rate of prior-generation card readers. Unlike the prior 10 Gb/s port, the RD-40CXB has a 40 Gb/s port, up to the task of fully utilizing PCIe Gen 4 x2 memory cards.
“People can wait, but why should they? Triple the current workflow performance speed allows creators to clock out earlier and make it to happy hour,” the Taiwanese company says in a press release.
“Reducing the transfer time by 75% from two minutes to [a] half minute for 100GB is a big step forward,” says Frank Wang, Senior Product Manager of Wise Advanced. The caveat is that this claim is based on Wise’s internal testing using its WA-CX02 and RD-40CXB card readers with an Apple MacBook Pro using an M2 chip. The actual testing showed transfer time dropping from 136 to 30 seconds.
Like OWC’s new USB4 CFexpress Type B card reader, also announced this week, Wise has opted to build its new reader using an aluminum chassis. While OWC spoke specifically about its thermal design, Wise made no specific claims concerning thermal throttling or sustained performance.
The Wise RD-40CXB weighs 108 grams (3.8 ounces) and is 69.8 x 62 x 21 millimeters (2.7 x 2.4 x 0.8 inches).
The new card reader will begin shipping in mid-April for $100, the same price as OWC’s new Atlas USB4 CFexpress 4.0 Type B card reader, which is slated to ship in early March.
As PetaPixel has previously explained, new CFexpress 4.0 card readers improve transfer speeds with non-CFexpress 4.0 memory cards, but no current cameras can take full advantage of the latest cards. That will inevitably change, and perhaps even change this year.
As for Wise itself, it not only announced its new USB4 card reader, but it also upgraded its CFX-B lineup for CFexpress Type B cards to the PCIe Gen 4 era. While these new cards won’t be any faster in a camera, they will deliver significantly improved transfer speeds when moving data from the card to a computer or vice versa.
Image credits: Wise