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

To: John Stichnoth who wrote (8706)	1/19/2000 4:27:00 PM
From: Artslaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

I saw recently that the number used to be 100,000 (of writes per card). Flash wears out over time--the way the cells write data is hard on the insulator, essentially. I don't know what the current spec is, but do you actually think you'll take more than 100,000 cards-worth of pictures? For most flash-card applications (data storage), I think the wearout-related reliability is fine. It's only when you try to use it as main memory (where you write to it on the scale of seconds) that this becomes an issue (IMHO). I'm sure they've boosted the endurance beyond 100,000 write cycles as well. . .might be more on the order of millions now (then again, double-density flash probably has a shorter endurance, so maybe it is still on the order of 100,000). Steve

To: John Stichnoth who wrote (8706)	1/19/2000 4:59:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

John, re: durability Eli commented before about NOR flash remaining as the principal type of cell architecture to be used for industrial applications while NAND and NAND/D2 would be used primarily for the audio/video market where one is unlikely to exceed the anticipated range of read/write cycles. CompactFlash made by SanDisk carries a "10 million picture guarantee" while Lexar copied this slogan giving their branded flash a "10 zillion exposure" claim. When all is said and done you will probably lose the flash card or die before you wear it out, preferably the former. Ausdauer

To: John Stichnoth who wrote (8706)	1/20/2000 9:51:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

John and Thread, SSTI will only be selling CompactFlash through OEM relationships. But nobody in the CF market has a more impressive list of OEM's backing them than SanDisk. That can be said with certainty. messages.yahoo.com SSTI posted total revenues for 1999 of $124,794,000 and a loss of 17½. In Q4 they had total revenues of $48,328,000 and net income of $5,743,000 yielding net earnings per share of 21½ fully diluted with tax loss carry forwards. They were able to do this with only about $6 million in royalty and licensing revenues for the year. Once SanDisk is firing on all cylinders I have to believe that top line growth will be phenomenal. Just look at IOM to get a feeling for the size of the potential consumer market for removable memory, then factor in the .mp3 craze. IOM is on target to do $1.5 billion in total revenues this year alone... biz.yahoo.com It boggles the mind. Ausdauer