Many memory card formats have vanished unable to cope up with the taking over of SD cards. CompactFlash has managed to survive because of its high capacity and transfer rate. But to be competitive, it needed improvement.
The newly designed cards with XQD format use PCI express technology to achieve astonishing 2.5 GB per second transfer rate initially and 5 GB per second later. These cards will write data at a minimum speed of 125 MBps. CompactFlash cards found today top out at about 100MBps. CompactFlash card users will have a wide variety of memory options available. The new design will be licensed in early 2012
