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

To: Josef Svejk who wrote (2547)	2/12/1998 2:39:00 PM
From: Michael C. Woodward	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

SANDISK RESPONSE - 2/11/98 The matters discussed in this response 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 on 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 response. Question - from Ian Wilder This is more of a statement than a question, but I passed it along. This is in regards to the potential for CF for medical monitoring? A SI investors brother-in-law is a cardiologist and they attach monitors to patients to record the patients heart data over a 24 hour period. What better way of storing the data and obviating the need for an old fashioned and obsolete recorder type device than by using a no moving parts CF based recorder. This would give the medical profession a much smaller and more resiliant type of device which would be more comfortable for patients to use. Response As the writer notes, the question is more of a statement than a question. But this person does wonder about our presence in medical monitors. Yes, SanDisk Type II PC cards and Compact Flash are used in several medical monitors to record and store data. Two examples: CF cards are used in portable heart monitors made by two different firms-- Burdick and Braemer -- to record heart information. Question - Mike Winn Non-volatile and reprogramable memory (EEPROM, Flash) is already commonly used in embedded syssetems such as medical devices and avionics systems to store fault info, software program, usage record, user configuration, etc. In embedded systems, where the non-volatile memory device is not removable, it's very difficult to set a standard. The memory chips are designed on the circuit board and the hardware engineers will choose the flash or EEPROM that meets the cost, size, pin count, ease of programability, reliability, storage desity, etc. criteria. It seems to me that flash chips from SanDisk are competitive in all those criteria, except for maybe the cost. I have seen articles stating that other companies flash is more price competitive, than SanDisk's flash. Is this true, and, if so, why? Response Besides selling removable flash cards, SanDisk also marktes its own embedded flash devices for numerous applications that require embedded flash rather tna removable flash cards. SanDisk has been in the embedded market for some time and it is a growing market for the company. SanDisk's pricing in this market is competitive. Question - Mike Winn Lexar buys flash memory chips from other vendors and fabricates the flash card (CF or SmartMedia). A flash card contains a controller and several flash memory chips. SanDisk makes both the flash chips and the controller. Is there any plan to improve the performance of SanDisk's controller? I noticed that Lexar has a patent on the controller. Response SanDisk is constantly working to lower the cost and improve the performance of its controller. Question - Mike Winn It seems that there are the CompactFlash and SmartMedia formats which define the storage media, and then there are the CIFF and EXIF formats which define the image compression fromat. From an article in EE Times Most digital camera vendors who use the CompactFlash memory cards, Canon is one of them, favor the CIFF format. But Kodak and Fuji ue the EXIF format. The article stated that CIFF format is better than the EXIF format because it's backward compatible with JPEG, and it contains information such as camera type and shutter speed. The article also stated that SmartMedia's users are pro-EXIF while CompactFlash's users are pro-CIFF, but SmartMedia has a larger share of the market. What storage format is the winner: compactFlash or SmartMedia? which compression format is the winner: CIFF or EXIF? Response There are erroneous segments of information in the EE Times article. The CIFF and EXIF image formats have nothing to do with storage cards such as those sold by SanDisk, Toshiba, Intel or any other vendor. Contrary to what the article states, SmartMedia cards do not have a larger share of the market than do CompactFlash cards. In the latest (1996) worldwide market survey reported by a market research firm (inStat), this is the market share breakdown for small size memory cards: CompactFlash, 83%; SmartMedia, 13%; Minature Card, 4%. Market researchers have indicated that when they report ehri 1997 results, CompactFlash again will be the market share leader. Question - Ian Wilder This question is related to the recent announement by Microsoft Corp. regarding their introduction of the PalmPC, a Windows CE operating system for palmtop devices. Will SanDisk products work with the new Microsoft product? Response SanDisk products will work in the Palm PC and Auto PC introduced recently by Microsoft. The two PC platforms are specifically designed to work with SanDisk products and have slots exclusively for CompactFlash cards. They do not include slots for small size memory cards made by competeing companies. Question - Jim Ley Regarding product introductions at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. NEC Computer Systems introduced its MobilePro 700, a color handheld PC based on the company's MobilePro 700. Ericsson introduced its new CE 2.0 handheld, the E-16, which is based on HP's HP360LX. Are NEC and Ericcson using CF? (The Palm PC Pager card will use CFII slot...Will the PalmPilot use CF?) Response Yes, NEC's MobilePro 700 and Ericsson's new CE 2.0 handheld computer both use CompactFlash and have slots for CompactFlash cards. We have no comment on future unannounced PalmPilot products. Question - Greg Thomas Sony offers a top notch digital camera, and they have recently come out with a PC that has digital photo capabilities as well. Is Sony using SanDisk products? Response Yes, Sony is using SanDisk product. Sony OEM's SanDisk Type II flash cards and sells them under the Sony label for use in the Sony DKC-ID1 digital camera. The SanDisk card is included with the sale of every DKC-ID1 camera.