SanDisk strengthens focus on SSD business

Tags: SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK), ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

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PRESS RELEASE

  • New SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD and X110 added to SSD product lineup
  • New "SanDisk for Business" channel to broaden availability of SanDisk SSDs
  • SanDisk U100 SSD to be used in new ASUS Transformer Book

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7, 2013 - SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, today announced new products, a new distribution channel and a key notebook design win, all aimed at delivering the benefits of advanced SanDisk solid state drive (SSD) technology to a greater number of customers. 

"With today's announcements, it's clear SanDisk is going all out in its commitment to delivering industry-leading SSD technology to our customers," said Kevin Conley, senior vice president and general manager, client storage solutions. "SanDisk now offers the broadest SSD lineup in the industry, with a full portfolio of products for consumers, OEMs and enterprises. We're also broadening our reach with a new distribution channel and continuing to see strong customer acceptance with our latest design win in the ASUS Transformer Book."

Two New SSDs Launched

SanDisk today announced two new SSD products - the SanDisk Ultra® Plus SSD for the retail channel and the SanDisk X110 SSD for OEM customers.

The SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD is ideal for consumers who want to boost their notebook or desktop computer's boot, shutdown, data-transfer and application launch times. The low latency of the SATA 3.0 drive allows it to respond quickly, even with a heavy workload, and its consistently high read speed is ideal for read-intensive applications such as multimedia consumption.

The drive delivers up to 530MB/sec sequential read and up to 445MB/sec sequential write speeds1, offering a fast, responsive computing experience. In addition, with no moving parts, the SSD is more durable than traditional hard disk drives and it consumes less power to help maximize battery life. The drive is available now at Amazon.com and Microcenter.com in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB2 capacities carrying suggested retail prices of £54.99, £71.99 and £137.99, respectively.

The SanDisk X110 SSD enables notebook and tablet OEM manufacturers to design fast, responsive systems with the sleek, thin form factors consumers' desire. The X110, successor to SanDisk's popular X100 SSD, delivers fast sequential and random read/write speeds and employs a low power architecture that significantly reduces the power consumed by the device in low power modes. The drive is available now in a 2.5" SATA form factor for easy integration into systems sold by OEMs.

SanDisk is building both new SSDs using its industry-leading 19 nanometer (nm) technology, the world's smallest, most advanced manufacturing process node.

New Distribution Channel to Offer SSDs to Broader Set of Customers

SanDisk today also unveiled a new worldwide distribution channel, "SanDisk for Business," which offers OEM and enterprise-grade SSDs to value-added resellers (VARs), system integrators and direct market resellers (DMRs). SanDisk's new distribution channel addresses a wider portion of the market by delivering high-quality SanDisk SSD technology to small and medium-sized businesses, a growing market segment for SSDs. More information on SanDisk's distribution channel may be found at businesspartners.sandisk.com.

ASUS Selects SanDisk SSD for New Convertible Notebook

In addition to new products and a new distribution channel, SanDisk today also announced a key design win for its SSD technology. The company announced that the SanDisk U100 SSD is being used by ASUS in the ASUS Transformer Book, the world's first notebook with a detachable tablet. The ASUS Transformer Book uses a SanDisk U100 SSD for high-capacity, blazing-fast storage and a small footprint that allows it to fit neatly into the sleek, ultra-thin notebook. The highly-responsive SSD significantly improves the Transformer Book performance, allowing users to quickly boot and rapidly launch applications, and its mSATA mini form factor enables the notebook's innovative convertible form factor.

SanDisk Solid State Drives

SanDisk offers a full portfolio of SSD products for the retail, OEM and enterprise customers.

Retail products include the SanDisk ReadyCacheTM SSD caching solution offering consumers an easy, affordable way to breathe new life into their computer; the SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD; and, the SanDisk Extreme® SSD featuring maximum performance for gamers and other heavy computer users.

OEM products include the U100 SSD for cost-effective performance and customizable form factors; the X110 SSDfeaturing the utmost in performance and storage capacity for desktop and notebook PC manufacturers; and, the SanDisk iSSDTM integrated storage device for an embedded SSD SATA form factor. All models are available as standalone SSDs or dual drive caching solutions.

Within the SanDisk enterprise product lineup, Lightning® SSDs provide the industry's widest array of flexible cloud and data center system design solutions. The drives deliver impressive input/output speeds, as well as predictable performance and reliability. SanDisk also offers enterprise customers software solutions for even greater performance improvements. The company's FlashSoftTM software family accelerates active data caching, while the performance of database applications is improved with SanDisk's Membrain software.

About SanDisk

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is a global leader in flash memory storage solutions, from research and development, product design and manufacturing to branding and distribution for OEM and retail channels. Since 1988, SanDisk's innovations in flash memory and storage system technologies have provided customers with new and transformational digital experiences. SanDisk's diverse product portfolio includes flash memory cards and embedded solutions used in smart phones, tablets, digital cameras, camcorders, digital media players and other consumer electronic devices, as well as USB flash drives and solid-state drives (SSD) for the computing market. SanDisk's products are used by consumers and enterprise customers around the world.

SanDisk is a Silicon Valley-based S&P 500 and Fortune 500 company, with more than half its sales outside the United States. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.

1 Up to stated speed. Based on internal testing; performance may vary based on host device. 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes.

2 1 gigabyte = 1 billion bytes.  Some capacity not available for data storage.