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To: 16yearcycle who wrote (3925)	12/11/2000 5:23:09 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 57684

Afterhours: DoubleClick up on its warning.

To: 16yearcycle who wrote (3925)	12/12/2000 1:30:19 AM
From: Si_Detective	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 57684

Sandisk is a semi co in Flash memory. Flash memory is different with RAM(DRAM or SRAM) that it can retent information when the power is off for many years >> so it's naturally suit for portable devices, like MP3, digital camera and Palm, etc, etc. One aspect I like about non-volatile memory company is that it's not just about manufacturing capability, like MU in DRAM, but also in design(memory cell design, both circuit and process technology involved). Sandisk owns some very fundamental patents in this area(including multi bit/cell patents. Usually each memory cell contains one bit of information. So 2bits per cell ideally doubles its capacity, even though there'll be some overhead to make this happen). Sandisk won some significant patent lawsuits over some Korea/Japanese flash memory company 1 or 2 years ago and has been since collecting royalties from those company. Even Intel is paying them royalties too. The barrier of entry is very high in this sector. You need to work with IC fab to develope the process flow. So you not only need circuit designers, you also need many PHDs in process technology. Since it's considered as commodity business(grow margin is lower than most fabless semi companies), so you need to own part of the IC fab in order to secure wafer capacities. People has been talking the boom in flash memory for years, but only in recent years, since digital camer, and all these portable devices, ESP. MP3 becomes popular that flash memory related companies take off. I think they have long way to go as the demand is outstriped supply. In Intel's CC(warning) few days ago, it mentioned all product lines sees a slow down except flash memory. Hope this helps. By the way, Rex makes a 10 bagger in Sandisk, I believe he's out of it at the high, not quite sure if he's back in now. :)