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Technology Stocks : SILICON STORAGE SSTI Flash Mem -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: docpaul who wrote (1783)	8/30/2001 11:36:15 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1881

docpaul--Regarding patents, the protection offered by a patent begins technically when the patent is approved, but the day the patent is applied for is important in order to show that someone else's application filed later may be limited by "prior art." There are many factors that can work against the effectiveness of a patent in allowing its owner to make a profit from the patent. For example, this SSTI patent you mentioned involves a type of flash memory known as "NOR." The type of flash memory that SanDisk specializes in is known as "NAND." It's not clear to me (and I hope someone who knows will comment) that patents on NOR flash chips apply as well to NAND. Another thing to remember is that a patent cannot cover a theory or principle; it only covers a new process for doing something. The NOR type chips have until now been used in low capacity circuits where read/write speed can be slower, and where the contemplated number of erase/rewrite cycles is less than in the NAND type memory. This is my understanding, and if true, means that SSTI is still aiming at applications for cell phones, PDA's and the like, for storing small programs, address files, and other documents, where there is less need for the 10 million read/write cycle warranty that SanDisk provides with its compact flash units. As I understand it, a NOR memory is a lot less expensive than NAND, so there's another factor to consider. Maybe in the future both NOR and NAND chips become so inexpensive that it doesn't matter. Art