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

To: orkrious who wrote (11141)	5/18/2000 7:10:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

The Wired Magazine article on Stuart Parkin is now available on-line... ...and it outlines the difficulties in creating the layer of ferromagnetic layer needed to make this technology a practical solution. wired.com Parkin has already built prototype MRAM chips that store about 1 Kbyte of data. That's not much, but he's confident he can ramp up memory capacity in the next few years and produce a chip that is smaller and faster, stores more data, and costs less to manufacture than DRAM. Parkin won't say exactly how long it will take IBM to do this, but analysts outside the company believe it will happen in less than five years. Big Blue wanted Parkin to create new kinds of layered magnetic materials and analyze them for use in mass storage. "But the MBE system was a big, cumbersome instrument, very time-consuming to use," says Parkin. A year later, he turned the machine over to another scientist, abandoning the MBE experiments but using $50,000 left over from the original project to construct something called a sputtering chamber. A vacuum cylinder about the size of a washing machine, the chamber can slam atoms of gas into various substances, breaking off tiny shavings that cling to whatever material is nearby. This is basically a brute-force way to very quickly deposit layers of elements on a surface, which can then be tested for its ability to hold magnetic data. Ausdauer

To: orkrious who wrote (11141)	5/18/2000 9:26:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

It's almost as though SanDisk erected the Eiffel Tower... ...and now people are refusing to pay a few francs for an elevator ride to the observation deck. I wanted to thank NY Stew for the Sony article I posted this morning. I still think Sony and Lexar Media are strange bedfellows. It would almost seem that Sony has alienated other manufacturers by their insistance on creating a wholly new and duplicative removable flash standard and fragmenting the consumer market place. I still think the following relationship may have Sony walking on thin ice... "Lexar has given Sony a license to its high-speed flash memory controller technology. It enables 6-10megabytes-per-second write speeds," said Linda Frueh, vice president of business development for Lexar Media. According to another Lexar representative, the new Memory Sticks will be at least an order of magnitude faster than the current design. The new sticks will arrive on store shelves in the first quarter of next year. Pricing information isn't currently available. Sony holds a multi-million dollar stake in Lexar Media." Countervailing opinions welcomed and appreciated. Ausdauer

To: orkrious who wrote (11141)	5/18/2000 9:55:00 AM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Grandiose visions of CompactFlash? My wife suggested my last two analogies might be a bit grandiose. I don't wish to make any excuses for myself, just that I am passionate about CompactFlash. Both my father and brother are scientists and I can imagine quite clearly how each would react to the type of treatment that is being dished out by Lexar Media. I still would like to see Eli go head-to-head with John Reimer in the U.S. Patent Court. I am sure Lexar legal counsel won't let their CEO anywhere near that venue. The sad part of the whole story for Lexar is that there are probably some well-meaning, talented engineers and gifted marketing folks who have their nose to the grindstone while management continues with this collision course. Message 13712349 Somehow a $2 million dollar investment by Sony seems like a drop in the bucket. Just looking at SanDisk's defense costs of $1.7 million puts that figure into perspective. CompactFlash is a work of art and an architectural masterpiece on the micron scale. Please keep your toll booth tokens, boat tickets and francs handy. Ausdauer