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Later today, SanDisk will unveil a new CompactFlash series capable of card-to-computer transfer rates that are well over twice as fast as the quickest cards currently available. Dubbed Extreme IV and slated for release in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities, the new line also puts SanDisk back at or near the top of the leaderboard in digital SLR write speed. But the solid in-camera performance of Extreme IV is really the sidebar; the main story is how SanDisk's new flagship memory card line can dramatically reduce the time it take to copy photos to the computer for editing.
At a press conference this afternoon in New York, the company will also take the wraps off two new card readers: the FireWire 800/400 Extreme FireWire Reader, which accepts CompactFlash, and the Extreme USB 2.0 Reader, which accepts CompactFlash, Secure Digital (SD) and several other formats.
Did we mention how fast the Extreme IV cards are at card-to-computer transfers? Here's a taste: the best CompactFlash cards on the market now are capable of real-world throughput between about 15MB-17MB/second in the best shipping readers we've tried. By comparison, the SanDisk Extreme IV 2GB, when inserted in an Extreme FireWire Reader, tops out at a whopping 38.6MB/second, with the Extreme IV 4GB weighing in at 38.4MB/second.
These aren't synthetic benchmarks, but the actual speediness of Extreme IV when moving JPEG and RAW picture files to a Power Mac G5 here. As you'll read later in this article, the right combination of hardware is needed to achieve transfer rates like this. Armed with the appropriate gear, however, it's possible to nip at the heels of the 39.1MB/sec read speed specified by SanDisk for this product. This may mark the first time in technology history that real world performance, at 38.6MB/second, nearly matches manufacturer-specified performance.
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