WDC/Sandisk Corporation Message Board

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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation

WDC 173.75

+6.6%

10:42 AM EST

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To: Allegoria who wrote (12465)	7/3/2000 4:11:49 PM
From: wily	Read Replies (1) of 60323

SSTI/SNDK cost comparison - take 2 If you start by assuming a cell size of 12L^2 for SSTI and 10L^2 for SNDK and then factor in the cost advantages of each -- fewer processing steps for SSTI and multibit for SNDK you can get an approximate cost factor comparison. SSTI needs 14 mask steps vs 20 for SNDK, so give a .7X advantage to SSTI SNDK gets a .5X advantage for 2bits/cell. Plus a 10/12 advantage for smaller cell size (guess). But then you have to add on a .3X cost penalty for the extra cost of doing 2-bit. SSTI = .7 * 12 = 8.4 SNDK = (.5 * 10)*1.3 = 6.5 So, SNDK has a 23% cost advantage over SSTI. But then you have to consider that the SSTI product may have a reliability advantage that makes the product more desirable in some cases. Also, Sandisk says that they put extra bits on each chip for insurance against manufacturing defects, and also to replace bad bits that occur during use. I don't know if SSTI does the same thing, and if they do whether the cost penalty is as great, since they probably don't have to allow for as many defects and failures. Bottom line is margins and the comparison doesn't matter much unless they are going after the same market. SSTI can't touch the highest end part of the Flash card market because they don't have MLC technology (I don't think). Or can they? Hitachi is making a 448MB card without using MLC, by stacking die in the package. So, presumably SSTI could do this too. Still, I would think a 23% cost disadvantage would be a significant hurdle. All approximations and guesses... wily

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