SanDisk and Qimonda to develop Mobile Storage | Digital Camera Review

Mobile handset market
iSuppli projects MCP revenues in the mobile handset market to reach nine billion dollars by 2011 with NAND and mobile DRAM combinations being the vast majority of memory MB shipped in MCPs. “Gaining access to SanDisk’s leading-edge flash memory and controller technology and low cost fabs broadens our memory product portfolio,” said Kin Wah Loh, Chief Executive Officer at Qimonda.

“Qimonda now completes its product offering for handheld consumer devices by offering advanced, high density MCP solutions in addition to a complete portfolio of low power DRAM products. Offering MCPs with advanced mobile DRAM and high capacity NAND Flash will allow Qimonda to optimize the architecture of memory subsystems used in mobile phones to address the growing need of major handset vendors for flexible bandwidth and memory utilization at competitive levels.“

SanDisk and Qimonda to develop Mobile Storage Solutions
“By collaborating with Qimonda, a DRAM market leader with strong expertise in low power mobile DRAM, SanDisk aims to increase its participation in the fast growing MCP market for multimedia handsets, thereby rounding out our one-stop-shop storage solutions for our handset customers,” said Eli Harari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at SanDisk.

“Through this partnership, each of our companies is leveraging the technical skills, IP and capacity investments of its partner to offer an integrated, competitive solution for our respective customers.”

NAND flash memory and mobile DRAM
SanDisk and Qimonda have a long history in the development and manufacturing of NAND flash memory and mobile DRAM, respectively. This joint venture creates a synergistic relationship that enables both companies to benefit from each others complementary memory technologies and to offer a broad range of NAND/mobile DRAM based MCP products.

The collaboration allows both companies to take advantage of the technology strengths and manufacturing platform of the other while each company remains committed to its respective global markets. Engineering samples are expected to be available for evaluation in the second half of 2007, with mass production planned towards the end of 2007.

About SanDisk - Inventor of flash storage cards
SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data storage card products using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology.

SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, CA and has operations worldwide with more than half its sales outside the United States. SanDisk currently offers a broad range of both embedded and removable storage solutions for mobile handset manufacturers such as iNAND, mDOC, microSD, miniSD and Memory Stick Micro M2.

About Qimonda - DRAM memory products
Qimonda AG is a leading global supplier of DRAM memory products.

Following the carve out from Infineon Technologies AG on May 1, 2006, Qimonda went public on the New York Stock Exchange on August 9, 2006. The company generated net sales of €3.81 billion in its 2006 financial year and has approximately 12,000 employees worldwide.

Qimonda has access to five 300mm manufacturing sites on three continents and operates five major R D facilities, including its lead R D center in Dresden. The company is a leading supplier of DRAM products to PC and server manufacturers and is increasingly focusing on products for graphics, mobile and consumer applications as well using its power saving trench technology.