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

To: Ausdauer who wrote (12971)	7/17/2000 10:08:34 AM
From: Allegoria	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 60323

Gee Aus...I apologize for being so busy that it has taken me a while to get back to your questions...Sooorrryyy! Anyway - here is what I have been able to find out: The product you questioned is named the "ATA-Disk Chip", which is SSTI's initial entry into low cost, high performance, embedded flash mass data storage market With a product name like "Disk Chip" is it any wonder for the confusion of whether it is a single/multiple chip or disk?( Aus are you ready to acknowledge that the product migration path of SSTI is in the direction of SNDK and not the other way around siliconinvestor.com As might be expected, it t is based on the strengths of SSTI's SuperFlash® technology chip and incorporates both the micro controller and the flash memory cells on a single disk. In SSTI's product description the say: "The ADC is a solid state disk drive…" So IMO the confusion revolves the word "chip" versus "disk." The ADC is solid state flash memory that is designed to replace conventional IDE hard disk drive and uses standard ATA/IDE protocol. It has built in micro controller and file management firmware that communicates with ATA standard interfaces; therefore, the ADC does not require additional or proprietary software such as Flash File System (FFS) and Memory Technology Driver (MTD) software. The company's split-gate SuperFlash technology, which provides higher reliability and low-power operation, is also "shrinkable" and easily integrated with standard CMOS, enabling SST to produce future ADCs with higher density at a lower cost per bit than standard flash, according to Nakhimovsky. If you visit the following URL and click on the "Presentations" button you will be rewarded with an interesting presentation showing the direction SSTI is headed with its products. Note slide #10 and bullet points 1-3 and 6…areas of some of the most explosive growth in the coming 10 years! Ref: ssti.com You asked earlier: 1) Does SSTI manufacture its own variety of high density flash through a fab parter. Yes. SSTI is partnering with some of the biggest names in the business to produce their flash product. But you knew this, so I guess your question is specifically about ADC. As these ADC 'chips' are still so new I have not found any new announcements for the ADC specifically. And yes, SST also plans to announce additional packages and higher density offerings of the ADC in the very near future. 2) Is SuperFlash suitable for MLC? Ahhh…this is an interesting question and unfortunately I have been left with the impression that is a closely held trade secret! I could not get SSTI to elaborate too much…but I did try fishing in different SSTI ponds…. 3) Is Nakhimovsky a double agent for SanDisk? I am still unable to understand how you thought the article in which Nakhimovsky was quoted was skewed more positively towards SNDK versus SSTI…but I am not unhappy either way. Nakhimovsky said that some emerging applications, such as set-top boxes and Internet appliances, are ideal markets for the type of products SSTI is focusing on. Although they need storage capacity, they do not require the multi-gigabyte capabilities of PCs. Set-top-box designs, for example, will need data storage to act as a buffer for downloading video streams, while Internet appliances need a buffer to hold Web page information. Will ACER get SSTI to the 512Mbit flash densitites and beyond? Back to this again? SSTI isn't targeting this market Aus...Apacer and SSTI are targeting lower density Internet Appliance (IA) applications markets...which they obviously feel is going to be a big market opportunity! Personally I feel an uncomfortable gnaw that as embedded flash (both data & storage) evolves to higher and higher capabilities that the consumer need for removable cards is going to be diminished. Added to this is the potentially disruptive influence that 'Blue Tooth' type technologies. These potential trends are going to take time however and in the meantime I see a very bright future for SNDK AND SSTI. However I am always looking over my shoulder for market trends and disruptive influences. Let me ask one question of you now: Why do you insist on lumping SSTI in with the high density crowd when you know it only potentially confuses thread readers? But your rather disparagingly question "Will ACER get SSTI to the 512Mbit flash densities and beyond?" presumes SSTI needs to get to 512Mbit and beyond…so what point are you really trying to make? SSTI has made it clear that they intend to OWN the low density arena and will move up the density ladder on the basis of profitability. Right now they are making a killing in low density - so why presume high density is the better market? Good luck, Eric