PR Newswire, Tuesday, February 17, 1998 at 10:18
An Industry First, ATA PC Card Technology on DIMM fills Void
in Flash Module Market
WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Electronic Designs, Inc. (EDI)
(NASDAQ:EDIX) today announced the formation of a strategic partnership with
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) to meet the growing need for Embedded Solid
State Data Storage. As a result of this strategic partnership, EDI will
receive technical information and key personnel training, regarding the
manufacturing and development of products using the SanDisk technology. EDI
will incorporate SanDisk's industry leading ATA/IDE Flash ChipSet technology
in their new embedded Flash module product family. The initial offering from
this product family is the industry's first ATA/IDE storage Flash packaged as
a 72 pin SO-DIMM (Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Module). EDI expects this
product family to be widely used in networking, medical instrumentation, test
equipment, mass storage and industrial applications.
EDI's 72 pin SO-DIMM ATA/IDE Flash module, based on SanDisk's patented
controller and flash chipset, is available in densities from 8MB to 80MB. The
on-board intelligent controller controls the interface between the host system
and the flash array, providing ATA/IDE register and command set compatibility,
error correction and power management. The 72 pin SO-DIMM provides the
smallest form-factor module, in this density range, available in the industry
today.
Ken Buckley, vice president of marketing and sales at EDI explained that,
"As a leading memory solutions provider, this is a significant step in the
continuing support of our customer base. Today, ATA/IDE data storage module
solutions are only available in Cards and Embedded disk formats. By expanding
the offerings to include SO-DIMM, SIMM and other packaging alternatives, EDI
and SanDisk are providing solutions to new market segments that the ATA/IDE
solution previously did not address. We believe the key to our strategic
partnership with SanDisk is our ability to offer the proven standard for
ATA/IDE data storage. EDI plans to offer several standard solutions as well
as custom solutions, for those customers with special requirements."
Nelson Chan, vice president of marketing at SanDisk, said, "This strategic
partnership between SanDisk flash technology and EDI's memory and integration
expertise gives us leverage to target markets which SanDisk cannot address as
effectively as EDI. This product family will cater to many applications
requiring data storage and which may be currently using socket flash which is
not cost effective nor designed for data storage. Together, we can offer
flash solutions in the packages that the market requests today."
SanDisk Corporation is the market share leader in the global data storage
market. Electronic Designs, Inc. is a premier supplier and industry leader in
the design, manufacture and support of high performance memory products.
Together, the two companies will combine their respective strengths to provide
well-targeted, cost effective memory products.
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 Electronic Corp., NEC Corp., and LG Semicon.
SanDisk is based in Sunnyvale, CA.
EDI designs, manufactures and markets semiconductor memory and flat panel
display products for OEMs in the global commercial, industrial and military
markets, particularly telecommunications, data communications and avionics.
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 on Form 1O-K
and quarterly reports on Form 1O-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update the information in
this release.
EDI's web site/home page address: electronic-designs.com
SanDisk's web site/home page address: sandisk.com
SOURCE Electronic Designs, Inc.
-0- 02/17/98
/CONTACT: Corporate, Ken Buckley, Vice President, Marketing and Sales, or
Media, Liz Marsolais, Marketing Communications, both of Electronic Designs,
508-366-5151; or Financial Relations, Kevin McGrath of Cameron Associates,
212-245-8800, for Electronic Designs/
/Web site: electronic-designs.com sandisk.com |
