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

To: wily who wrote (13739)	8/8/2000 9:42:24 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

I learned several important things in the white paper article, Wily. Thanks for posting it. My knowledge of SanDisk's business was enhanced by your contributions. _______________________________________________________________________________ Phenomenal Growth Predictions Small form factor flash cards are poised for astronomical growth over the next few years. The graph you posted shows this very nicely. frontiernet.net _______________________________________________________________________________ Excellent SanDisk Positioning SanDisk is involved in all of the high growth areas. _______________________________________________________________________________ Microsoft Endorsement of CompactFlash The Microsoft endorsement of CompactFlash is felt to be a major sign of support by professional analysts. The importance of this endorsement should not be underestimated (despite my earlier comments today). The handheld PC market needs the CF+ slots. It seems unlikely that an MMC slot would be sufficient large for the current CF+ modules. _______________________________________________________________________________ Proprietary non-ATA/IDE Interfaces The reason I was confused a few weeks ago was because the MMC has a proprietary (serial) interface, not an ATA/IDE compliant interface. This is called the "MMC interface". I thought the non-ATA distinction was because of the type of pin connectors used, but clearly I was confused. As a result of this revelation I suspect the Lexar Media suit will have no effect on any MMC patent defenses. It is possible that Hitachi will need to license the MMC interface from SanDisk for flash RAM products (as it may already do from Infineon for flash ROM products). I cannot be certain of this. It is also possible that the MMC interface is offered royalty free in order to encourage second source providers to help support the standard. In a similar way Sony has figured a way to beat SanDisk's CF assembly patents. The Memory Stick has a proprietary (non-ATA/IDE) interface. Logically, this is referred to as the "Memory Stick" interface which is also a serial connection. Thus, the disk drive emulation patents that were successfully defended against Lexar Media appear to pertain only to ATA/IDE flash drives. The only royalties SanDisk may extract from Sony would be related to "pass through" royalties from Sony's ultra-high density flash supplier. _______________________________________________________________________________ Ausdauer SanDisk...Hey, a light just went on in my head!!!