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

To: rll who wrote (9358)	2/28/2000 9:55:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

rll, I think that write speed is a moving target. The Internet audio discussion you posted with the inventor from MU indicated that OUM's advantages included speed, endurance, scalability, closer interface with a central CPU and the possibility of embedding a layer of memory with standard CMOS processes used currently by Intel. This is apparently a very unobtrusive process. In this regard, speed may be the only relevant issue as it relates to the flash market for storage applications. Eli and his crew are sensitive to the criticism that they have not done enough about write speed in the SNDK product line and that they have allowed competitors (which will remain unnamed) to beat their chests about improved controller technology. Well, as Eli said, "speed kills" and at present the reliability of SanDisk CF is paramount. Possessing the top write speed is more of a bragging right than anything else. Which leads us to the question, why risk a product recall or unanticipated defect because you are pushing write speed while at the same time adding more complex cell architecture? The bottom line from my personal digital camera experience is that write speeds are adequate and improving rapidly. I still believe that the camera manufacturers are responsible for the lion's share of the blame (if you wish to point blame) because the image interpolation, compression and other manipulation differs from one manufacturer to the next. Also, the decision to use buffered DRAM in the camera can greatly accentuate CF performance (as I have posted earlier). SanDisk has licensed controller technology from SSTI and has greatly improved their own proprietary firmware in the microcontroller. I believe that write speed will be a vanishingly small concern as we go forward. Also, cell endurance is less of an issue in consumer products. SanDisk's NOR flash is quite satisfactory for the target consumer applications, hence the 10 million picture guarantee. I am not sweating OUM right now. If I were a manufacturer of embedded flash memory used in logic applications or code storage I might be losing some sleep. That is my humble opinion of the situation. Please recall I have no technical expertise in this area. Ausdauer (a.k.a. Joe Consumer, Main Street, USA)