Microsoft's exFAT offered to storage vendors and others

Stephen Withers
Monday, 14 December 2009 08:47

Microsoft is licensing its exFAT file system for flash memory. Sony, Canon and Sanyo are among the first licensees.

Microsoft developed the exFAT file system to allow the use of larger media and larger files, and to allow higher performance.

"exFAT is an ideal file system that delivers fast and reliable use of audio and video files. It is an important technology in Windows 7, and now that we are licensing this technology broadly to the industry, we want to encourage and support partners to build products that also contain this technology," said David Kaefer, general manager of intellectual property licensing at Microsoft.

Developed from FAT, exFAT supports media sizes up to 256TB and allows Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) cards to run at the full 300MBps speed when saving files.

It also allows the storage of more than 4,000 RAW images, 100 high-definition (HD) movies, or 60 hours of HD recording in a single directory, and provides for OEM-definable parameters to customise the file system for specific device characteristics, Microsoft officials stated.

"Consumers want a richer media storage experience, and we chose the exFAT file system for our SDXC memory card specification because of its incredible potential," said James Taylor, president of the SD Association.

"The exFAT file system supports large volumes, large files and better contiguous on-disk layout, which supports the SD Association's plans for the SDXC specification to provide consumers with quicker transfer speeds, support for very large files and seamless portability among devices. We look forward to incorporating the technology into our products," added Taylor.

exFAT has already been licensed by a number of companies including Sony, Canon and Sanyo, and it has been endorsed by flash storage manufacturer SanDisk. It is also a feature of Windows 7 and Vista SP1, and is available for XP SP2 and SP3 as a driver update.