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

To: EJhonsa who wrote (14827)	9/17/2000 4:15:05 PM
From: The Prophet	Respond to of 60323

I believe that Hitachi may pay royalties to SNDK on these products, but I am not sure. FLSH's disk-on-a-chip is also a potential competitor.

To: EJhonsa who wrote (14827)	9/17/2000 6:12:38 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 60323

Eric, I was interested in the Dane-Elec link. My understanding is that MMC is different from CompactFlash in that the manufacture incorporates most of the packaging process. That is to say, it becomes more difficult to order component parts and then assemble your own product with these individual units as is currently the standard for CompactFlash. I doubt that anyone will actually succeed on a cost basis by going into component assembly for MMC. I believe that companies which control their own flash wafer production and are capable of on-site assembly will have a significant cost advantage over competitors. SanDisk/Toshiba (FlashVision) and Hitachi/Siemens will likely be the leaders. If SanDisk is due royalty payments for MMC (MMC is a removable flash card with both an intelligent controller and a flash memory reservoir) because it is covered by the '987 patent, then SNDK will have a built in cost advantage. Having said that, MMC, like CompactFlash, is an "open standard". Thus, the waters are a bit muddied by this apparent contradiction. Is MMC "open and proprietary" or "open and non-proprietary"? That is the questioin. BTW, I suspect Dane-Elec is a Hitachi VAR. Aus