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I sometimes wonder why 'compact flash' rather than 'SD card' or 'USB stick'.

Is it because compact flash cards are generally older and cheaper and (more likely) more of a size-match for the older hard-drives of the 1980s and 1990s?

I can't remember seeing a compact flash card on general sale for quite some time.

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> Is it because compact flash cards are generally older and cheaper and (more likely) more of a size-match for the older hard-drives of the 1980s and 1990s?

Probably because CF uses the samw interface spec as older drives, original CF uses PATA, some later versions used SATA, both are probably simpler than USB (not sure what SD uses.)

In my case it’s because interfacing to the CPU bus is much simpler, and the code to drive it way smaller. SD card pretty much require a separate interface such as a 6522 VIA.

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