Lexar Media and Optosys Technologies GmbH today announced a collaboration to develop a new line of high-density CompactFlash cards. The new cards will use Lexar’s own ATA flash controller and will be manufactured and marketed by Optosys to the OEM telecom, datacom and medical markets.
Optosys director of memory products Willy Freibothe said that Lexar Media’s ATA flash controller is ideally suited for Optosys applications. “We chose Lexar Media for the technical capability of their controller, the Company’s roadmap and an outstanding technical support team,” said Freibothe.
Freibothe also noted that his company is developing a 1GB CompactFlash Type II card; recently Lexar Media showed off its 512MB card. The cards are used by high-resolution digital cameras and other devices that need copious amounts of flash memory storage. The 1GB card is expected to ship in the fourth quarter; Optosys said that a 2GB CompactFlash card isn’t far behind, either.
The secret to the large capacity of Optosys’s CompactFlash cards is a proprietary die-stacking technology that enables the company to mount up to 16 flash memory chips on a single Type II CompactFlash card.