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

To: Ausdauer who wrote (16821)	11/24/2000 6:29:29 PM
From: Ausdauer	Respond to of 60323

Within the next year I predict... ...that most ultra-high density flash will be using Hitachi MLC AND, SanDisk MLC NOR or FlashVision MLC NAND plus whatever MLC product that Samsung eventually creates. (My current understanding is that Samsung achieves 512Mbit densities using 0.15 micron line widths, not MLC.) That will mean that most CF card assemblers will need to revise their controllers to deal with the increased complexity that MLC requires. I wonder if Eli has licensed some of this controller technology to Hitachi as part of the renewed license that encompasses MLC. If you look back at some of the information we have posted here you will note, for example, that Hitachi sells both naked flash and a controller (I believe they are referred to as "C4" or "C5" microcontrollers) to CF assemblers. Previously I assumed that the flash component was licensed by Hitachi from SanDisk. Is this why Eli states that they make a profit on CF cards even when a competitor sells them? Is it possible that the most recent patents (as listed by Binx) are part of the new cross-license between Hitachi and SanDisk? Ausdauer@controllers_for_MLC.com