Dave, thank you, for that bit of Info, however, I have no doubt
that last weeks news:
Tuesday October 28 11:32 AM EST
Company Press Release
SanDisk Introduces World's First 80 Megabit
Flash Chip
Chip Uses 2nd Generation Double Density Technology
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 1997--
Key Advance Accomplished Through Separate Joint
Development Programs with Matsushita and NEC
SanDisk Also Announces New, Significantly Higher Capacity
Flash Storage Products Using the 80 Megabit Flash Chip
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), announced today that it has completed
development of the world's first Double Density 80 megabit flash chip. The
accomplishment was made possible following two separate 80 megabit joint
development programs that SanDisk worked on with Matsushita Electronics
Corp. (MEC) and NEC Corp. When SanDisk commences product shipments,
currently planned for mid-1998, the chip will allow the company to lower flash
prices and significantly increase the capacity of all SanDisk flash storage
products. The capacity of CompactFlash (CF) memory cards will be more than
doubled to 60 megabytes with the 80 megabit chip while the capacity of other
products also will be substantially increased.
This Double Density 80 megabit chip will allow SanDisk to put 10 megabytes in
a single standard TSOP (thin small outline package) and enable SanDisk to offer
a two-chip, 10 megabyte chipset solution.
The achievement was accomplished by combining the 0.35 micron
manufacturing technology of MEC and NEC with SanDisk's patented Double
Density Flash. Double Density Flash essentially doubles the capacity of flash
storage products by storing two bits of information in each flash cell. Double
Density Flash, sometimes referred to as multi-state or multi-level flash
technology, was first introduced by both SanDisk and MEC in November, 1996,
when they introduced a 64 megabit flash chip. SanDisk was the world's first
company to ship multi-state flash storage products and is today the only
company in production of such products.
With the 80 megabit (or 10 megabyte) flash chip, the top capacity of SanDisk
CompactFlash cards increases from 24 to 60 megabytes, the highest capacity CF
cards on the market. The top capacity of the flash chipset increases from 8 to 20
megabytes; Type II PC cards from 150 to 200 megabytes; Type III PC cards
from 300 to 500 megabytes; and SanDisk's embedded 1.8'' FlashDrive from
240 to 350 megabytes. These are now the industry's highest capacity products in
their respective categories.
Internal qualification of products based on the 80Mbit flash chip is expected to
be completed in Q1, 1998, with customer shipments expected in Q2, 1998.
Demonstration units will be shown at the SanDisk booth (L-1204, Las Vegas
Convention Center) at Fall COMDEX in Las Vegas, NV, Nov. 17-21.
Eli Harari, CEO and president of SanDisk, said, ''We are very pleased with the
excellent cooperation with our strategic partners, MEC and NEC, which has
resulted in this second generation Double Density Flash technology. This 80
megabit chip allows SanDisk to meet the 10 megabyte sweet spot of both the
CompactFlash market and the flash chipset market with a simple flash chip and
a simple low-cost controller chip. Our customers will benefit not only from the
lower cost structure of Double Density Flash, but equally from the extremely
high level of reliability made possible by the intelligent controller chip.''
Yutaka Nakamura, general manager, Memory Division, MEC, said, ''We are
pleased that both SanDisk and MEC have successfully completed the joint
development of the 2nd generation 80 megabit flash chip based on the current
1st generation 64 megabit multi-state flash chip which was first introduced by
both SanDisk and MEC. We believe that this smooth development of the 80
megabit flash chip will lead to early production ramp-up of this product; and
furthermore, early development of the next generation product.''
Hideto Goto, general manager, 2nd LSI Memory Division, NEC Corp., said,
''We are proud of the success of the joint development project with SanDisk,
and look forward to ship the world's largest scale solid state non-volatile
storage device as soon as possible.''
Nelson Chan, SanDisk vice president of marketing said, ''We believe that this 80
megabit announcement will enable SanDisk to maintain or strengthen its
leadership position. It is especially significant to note that with today's market
starting to demand higher capacity CompactFlash cards, we are able to increase
the capacity of our CompactFlash cards to 60 megabytes. Consumers and OEMs
will benefit from the 80 megabit technology because we believe it will result in
significantly lower prices and much higher capacity flash products across our
entire product line.''
SanDisk also has increased the performance of its Double Density Flash
products. With 80 megabit flash, sustained write speeds have been increased to
over 100 kilobytes a second - while sustained read speeds have been increased to
1.8 megabyte per second. The 80 megabit chip will operate at 3.3 or 5.0 volts
and is 100 percent plug and play compatible with all of SanDisk's existing flash
products.
SanDisk's new 80 megabit chips work with the company's intelligent controller
chip to provide a complete storage system. Only one 80 megabit chip and one
controller chip are needed to build, for example, a 10 megabyte formatted
FlashDisk card.
A 10 megabyte chipset will be priced at $45 in high volume OEM pricing. This
allows SanDisk to achieve a $4.50 per megabyte price. Other higher capacity
SanDisk products will be priced at approximately the same price per megabyte.
SanDisk Corporation, the world's largest supplier of flash data storage
products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard, solid-state data,
image and audio storage products using patented, high density flash memory
and controller technology. SanDisk has strategic alliances with Seagate
Technology, Matsushita Electronics Corp., NEC Corp. and LG Semicon.
Seagate holds a 25 percent equity stake in SanDisk. SanDisk is based in
Sunnyvale, CA.
The matters discussed in this news release contain forward looking statements
that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties as described under the caption
''Risk Factors'' in the Company's annual report or Form 10-K for the fiscal
year ended December 31, 1996, and quarterly report or Form 10-Q for the
fiscal quarter ended September 30, 1997, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information in
this release.
SanDisk's web site/home page address: sandisk.com
Has a bit more significance that the release you just posted. Furthermore, I feel that tomorrow's expected announcement will be
significant and on an entirely higher level.
bg |
