John,
I think on two occasions I have actually posted faster than Binx.
The Hitachi-SanDisk cooperation is exciting. Somehow we walked away from the talks with additional wafer capacity. That signals to me that SanDisk has a lot to offer Hitachi. I hope also that the agreement is royalty bearing for SanDisk as Hitachi is an existing licensee and contributes to the royalty revenue stream.
Under the new agreement, SanDisk and Hitachi will be free to use each other's patents related to binary flash and MLC flash in any of their products, with some exclusion of each company's proprietary technology. In addition, as part of the agreement, SanDisk will be guaranteed a portion of Hitachi's flash memory capacity. Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Eli Harari, SanDisk President and CEO, said, "SanDisk is happy to announce the signing of this important flash memory patent cross-licensing agreement with Hitachi, one of the leading suppliers of flash memory storage cards. Under this agreement, SanDisk recognizes the value of Hitachi's extensive semiconductor patents, while Hitachi recognizes the value of SanDisk's fundamental MLC flash memory patents. Both companies believe that the future of flash cards for the new post-PC consumer electronics markets, such as digital imaging, music and video lies with MLC flash technology."
"We are pleased to establish this mutually beneficial business relationship with SanDisk. We expect this relationship will be a benefit for our flash memory customers and provide a clear path for the expansion of flash technology to new applications," said Mikio Sakurai, general manager, System Memory Business Division, Semiconductor & Integrated Circuits of Hitachi.
SanDisk is in cross-licensing agreements with Toshiba and Hitachi. Toshiba has the advanced lithographic skills and packaging technology (chip stacking) that will be more and more important as time passes. Hitachi and SanDisk now seem to have a cooperative relationship in developing MLC technology despite the fierce competition in the market place (SDMC vs. Secure MMC, for example). Hitachi also is a major supplier of CF assemblers and produces both the flash and CF controller.
It seems like SanDisk is rubbing shoulders with the big boys.
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