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

To: coachbobknight who wrote (13235)	7/22/2000 9:32:01 AM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Aromasoft MultiPalm "Aromasoft tells us that with the Multipalm comes with a handset. Judging from a picture, the handset appears to be slightly thicker and longer than a dry-erase marker. It incorporates a numeric key pad and can be used as a stylus. Bluetooth technology will enable users to put the Multipalm in their briefcases and keep the handset in a more convenient location, like a pocket." I read a humorous piece by a Sun Microsystems' inventor (I think he created something called "JAVA") relating to multifunction PDA's. He said that it would be great if you could incorporate all the CDMA functionality into the sole and heel of your shoe and then power it by walking. This way all of the energy from the radiofrequencies won't give you a brain tumor and you don't need any batteries for the device. The PDA function would be linked wirelessly to your shoe and you end up carrying one less items. It is an interesting concept. IMHO, somehow the handset functions and the PDA functions will either have to become more miniaturized or totally separated. It will be interesting to see how things play out. Aus

To: coachbobknight who wrote (13235)	7/22/2000 9:58:09 AM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Will Bluetooth take a bite out of CompactFlash? "I got a sneak peak at this open specification's potential. Ericsson showed off a Bluetooth-capable digital camera that transmits image data wirelessly to a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. Dubbed "The Instant Postcard," the phone automatically transmits the data at a baud rate of 9600 to another phone that in turn feeds the data to a laptop via infrared. Imagine shooting a picture in San Francisco and transmitting the image to New York in seconds-- all without the use of wires." zdtv.com This concept of storage/transmission seems a bit excessive to me. I still have my doubts that anyone would trust their precious memories to a 9600 baud wireless connection to a remote PC or laptop. The CompactFlash Association people need to promote flash memory cards as a safe, rugged, protected and reliable means of portable storage. Until CF cards are viewed as a personal, personalizable and impervious interim repository for data the Bluetooth people will continue to chip away at us. ______________________________________________________________________________ SSTI is trying to deep six the flash card market by applying the "same basic technology" from their flash card product line to embedded mass storage on a "single chip". from: Eric Ziegler & eetimes.com "We have taken the same basic technology as in our flash card products and put it into a chip form," said Samuel Nakhimovsky, product marketing manager for the mass-storage line at SSTI (Sunnyvale, CA). Densities in the new product line, known as the ATA-disk chip, range from 8 to 64 Mbytes, running at both 5 and 3.3 volts. All are available now, with the 5-V family priced at $22 to $115 in 1,000,000-unit shipments, depending on density. All the devices use the same 32-pin dual in-line packaging. To achieve such high densities in a single chip, SST is using multidie packaging technology, including several silicon die in each device. The growing excitement around wireless networking-especially Bluetooth, seen as a wireless link between consumer devices and PCs-could also be a driver for the data flash chips, Nakhimovsky said. While current designs for systems like digital cameras require removable cards that can be placed into PC peripherals for downloading, a wireless link would make this step unnecessary. Instead, a less expensive flash chip could store the data until it is transmitted to the PC. Message 14077271 Isn't that "same basic technology" just SanDisk's disk drive emulation? ______________________________________________________________________________ Sam Nakhimovsky speak with forked tongue... "While embedded flash made the camera design cheaper (you didn't need to include expensive flash-card interface sockets and connectors), it didn't allow for future upgrades. Consumers, however, quickly showed their preference for removable flash cards, which make data exchange easy. In addition, flash cards provide simple operation and the ability to upgrade to higher capacities. So flash cards have gained acceptance in a multitude of digital devices. Only lower-end "kid cam" digital cameras use embedded flash." "The digital camera market is currently the biggest consumer market for flash-memory cards. Not surprisingly, the digital camera market follows the PC paradigm, with short product life cycles and almost instantaneous product obsolescence—a wildly different situation than the conventional film-camera market, where the same camera can be sold for a number of years and product improvements are incremental. As with the PC market, flash memory is the key enabling technology for product design and manufacturing." Message 14015653 ______________________________________________________________________________ Ausdauer