Flash devices add capacity

Sunnyvale, CA--By developing a new 80-Mbit double-density technology, SanDisk Corp. has significantly increased the storage capability of its removable flash memory cards and embedded flash devices. In fact, the company says it now offers the highest-capacity products in Type II and Type III PC flash Cards; CompactFlash(TM) cards; 1.8-, 2.5-, and 3.5-inch flashdrives; and flash chipsets.

Because the technology essentially doubles the capacity of flash storage products by storing two bits of information in each flash cell instead of the traditional one bit, the company also announced that it has been able to reduce prices for its double-density flash by about 20% per megabyte.

SanDisk's Type II PC cards increase from 220 to 280 Mbytes; its Type III PC cards more than double in capacity from 220 to 500 Mbytes. The top capacity of CompactFlash cards rises from 48 to 60 Mbytes, and that of the 1.8-inch embedded flashdrive increases from 140 to 240 Mbytes. SanDisk's new 2.5- and 3.5-inch flashdrives will debut with top capacities of 500 Mbytes.

This is the company's second generation of double-density flash products. In moving to the next generation, designers doubled the write speed to 100 kbytes/sec and the read speed to 1.8 Mbytes/sec. These specs suit the 60-Mbyte CompactFlash card for such applications as handheld and industrial computers, audio recorders, and medical monitors, but not for digital cameras.

However, 46 digital cameras from 24 manufacturers now use the faster but lower-capacity standard CompactFlash cards. SanDisk officials say their card has more design wins in digital cameras than all other small memory cards combined.

In addition, Philips Mobile Computing Group has designed a CompactFlash slot in its new Nino 300 Windows CE-based palm-size PC. Philips will sell 2- to 30-Mbyte SanDisk CompactFlash removable memory cards for the pen-based device.