The CFA approved and published the CompactFlash standard. This vendor-independent specification enabled users to develop CF products that function correctly and are compatible with future CF designs, eliminating compatibility issues.
Now the CFA has developed the CF+ specification to expand the CF concept beyond flash data storage and include I/O devices and magnetic disk data storage. The CF+ specification also includes the original Type I (3.3 mm thick) card and newer Type II (5 mm thick) cards. While CompactFlash and many I/O devices can fit into the Type I card, the Type II cards enable higher capacity CompactFlash cards, magnetic disk cards and many additional I/O cards.