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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Hess who wrote (7524)	10/13/1999 2:48:00 AM
From: Oscar Ayzenberg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Just got across interesting stock with similar name - SmartDisk (SMDK). They do adapters which allow to read flash SmartCards in any regular 3.5" floppy drive - no need for cables or anything! Adapter is kind of expensive IMHO ($79) but I think it worth the convinience. I went ahead and bought 200 shares. Check it out! www.smartdrive.com

To: Don Hess who wrote (7524)	10/13/1999 9:25:00 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 60323

Don, the answers to some of your questions are already known: 1. DRAM shortage affects flash memory mainly by making it more difficult to obtain appliances with flash memory that also depend on DRAM. It's not clear to me why people think that problems with the supply of DRAM have a lot to do with the market and/or price for flash memory. 2. If anything, the weakness of the dollar against the yen may be in part responsible for the agreement with Toshiba to produce flash memories at a new factory in Virginia. Maybe it IS cheaper to make them in the U.S. The weakness of the dollar is structural, in the sense that the growing trade deficits are the result of increasing dependence on foreign oil. Nothing short of revolutionary actions, like increasing the federal tax on gasoline, or taxing manufacturers more for low gas mileage vehicles, will stem this dependence. It is a political issue that no one of either party has the guts to address. Personally, I think it is foolhardy for any country to depend on foreign energy sources, when there are reasonable alternatives that would provide incentives to lower consumption. 3. The Toshiba fabrication should INCREASE operating earnings following the start up period. The only way earnings would decrease is if the investment expenses were charged to the current year, which would certainly be an unusual way of accounting for such expenses. 4. With demand for CF increasing so rapidly, it is unlikely the earthquake had any long term effect in terms of losing business. At the most, it seems to be like deferring sales to a later period, rather than losing them. 5. If there has been a recent filing in regard to Lexar, I'm sure they'll tell us. More likely, (because this kind of litigation tends to progress very, very slowly), there have been no new public developments that can be discussed. I certainly don't expect SNDK to reveal ANYTHING about what it is doing in regard to the litigation. Most likely, the ball is in Lexar's court, unless SNDK files a motion to dismiss. 6. Sony is just relying on its size to go a slightly different direction in the use of flash memory, thereby hoping to encourage people to stick with its form of memory (pun intended). It appears that Sony, or whoever makes this equipment, will be paying royalties to SNDK, so the real impact, given the much larger numbers of appliances built for CF, is slight. Let's see whether SNDK has any more info on these items, but what really interests me is (1) growth in sales of CF units, expressed in both total numbers as well as average capacity of each unit; and (2) where SNDK sees overall demand going in the next three to five years. Art