SANDISK ANNOUNCES INAND EMBEDDED FLASH DRIVE LINE THAT SUPPORTS ADVANCED PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION FEATURES BEYOND E.MMC 4.4
Product Enables OEMs to Reduce Handset Design
Complexity, Improve Performance and Achieve Fast Integration into
Existing Mobile Systems
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, HALL
8, Booth 8B91, Barcelona, February 15, 2010 - SanDisk
Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), the global leader in flash memory
cards, today announced that the SanDisk® iNAND™ Embedded Flash
Drive (EFD) product line offers new performance enhancement
features that go beyond the existing e.MMC 4.4 specification. The
new features improve system responsiveness and accelerate the
implementation of consolidated boot and storage code within a
single device without affecting the consumer experience.
The e.MMC 4.4 standard interface is
designed for embedded, non-volatile memory storage devices made up
of both NAND flash memory and a flash memory controller. This
latest specification is designed to meet the requirements for a
flexible program code and user data storage solution for mobile
phones, global positioning systems (GPS), digital music players and
other portable consumer electronics devices. SanDisk iNAND EFDs
exceed the existing e.MMC 4.4 standard interface to offer unique
features that enhance system responsiveness and bridge the gap
between e.MMC's plain boot solution and its practical
implementation.
iNAND EFDs Consolidate System Code and User
Storage
SanDisk's iNAND EFDs are designed
specifically for high end smartphones that deliver an increasing
array of applications and advanced multimedia functions. The drives
consolidate system code and user storage into a single embedded
device, thus conserving scarce board space, reducing handset design
complexity and power consumption, and saving OEMs the cost of an
otherwise needed separate boot device. With almost 10 years of
booting mobile handsets from multi-level cell (MLC) NAND, SanDisk
has the history of innovation and technical expertise needed to
consolidate boot and storage functions in a single package.
iNAND's optimal balance between
system code and user data storage is achieved by implementing
unique NAND capabilities and architecture. A reliable high random
performance area is designated for the smartphone operating system,
with a cost-effective high-sequential performance area dedicated to
user storage. iNAND architecture is developed based on in-depth
analyses of actual smartphone usage, and supports highly aggressive
mobile system and usage scenarios.
New Features Improve Responsiveness by Enhancing Mobile
Host Control
As smartphone applications
proliferate, the ability to multitask requires a greater degree of
responsiveness from the storage device. In addition to fully
supporting the e.MMC 4.4 specification, the latest generation of
SanDisk iNAND EFDs introduces new features that improve performance
by enhancing the level of control the mobile host is given over the
storage device.
Flexible read prioritization
functionality in iNAND empowers the mobile host to temporarily
suspend storage device operations in favor of high priority ones,
substantially reducing storage device latency. System latency is
further reduced by performing common background flash maintenance
operations during system idle time. Allowing iNAND background
operations to be scheduled by the host ensures that the storage
device is not busy when it's needed most.
Quick Integration into Customers' Mobile Systems and
Industry Standards
"SanDisk's ability to provide a
viable boot solution comes from an intimate knowledge of both flash
and system technologies together with the experience gained in
almost ten years of booting mobile handsets with embedded MLC
flash," said Amir Lehr, vice president, mobile business, SanDisk.
"This allows SanDisk to quickly offer advanced mobile system
solutions to its customers, and to turn innovative thinking into
industry standards."
About iNAND
SanDisk iNAND EFDs come in a wide
range of storage capacities, ranging from 2 gigabytes (GB)1 to 64GB
and utilizing e.MMC standard interfaces and packages for quick
integration into handset designs. With managed physical partitions,
advanced caching technology, customizable attributes and advanced
power failure immunity, SanDisk iNAND features highly reliable boot
code and application storage device capabilities in addition to
being a mass storage solution. iNAND devices are based on both 2
bits-per-cell (X2) and 3 bits-per-cell (X3) technologies.
About SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is the global
leader in flash memory cards, from research, manufacturing and
product design to consumer branding and retail distribution.
SanDisk's product portfolio includes flash memory cards for mobile
phones, digital cameras and camcorders; digital audio/video
players; USB flash drives for consumers and the enterprise;
embedded memory for mobile devices; and solid state drives for
computers. SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 company,
with more than half its sales outside the United States.
11 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes.
SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are
trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States
and other countries. iNAND is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation.
Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes
only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
This press release contains certain
forward-looking statements, including expectations for new product
introductions, specifications, applications, markets, customer
acceptance and customers that are based on our current expectations
and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these
forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause
these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among
others: market demand for our products may grow more slowly than
our expectations, there may be a slower adoption rate for these
products in new markets that we are targeting, our products may not
be available in the anticipated capacities, our products may not
perform as expected, and the other risks detailed from time-to-time
under the caption "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our Securities
and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not
limited to, our most recent annual report on Form 10-K/A and our
subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We do not intend to
update the information contained in this press release.
| Media Contact: |
| SanDisk Corporation |
| Mike Wong |
| Phone:+1 650-743-3983 |
| Email: mwong@sandisk.com |
| |