Contents

[hide]

• 1 History
• 2 Financial information
o 2.1 Acquisitions
o 2.2 MP3 license dispute
• 3 Products
o 3.1 Memory Cards
o 3.2 USB Flash Drives
o 3.3 Others
o 3.4 Audio and Video Players
• 4 Partnerships
• 5 See also
• 6 References
• 7 External links

SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is an American multinational corporation that
designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the
flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari
and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory technology experts. SanDisk became a publicly
traded company on NASDAQ in November 1995. In October 2010 its market capitalization was
US$8.9 billion. SanDisk produces many different types of flash memory, including various
memory cards and a series of USB removable drives. SanDisk markets to both the high-end and
low-end sector demand for premium quality flash memory, and markets to other equipment
makers as well as direct to consumers.

The company is headquartered in Milpitas, California, with offices or manufacturing facilities in

10 locations in Asia (including Taiwan, China and Japan), 6 locations in Europe (including the
UK, Ireland and Spain), and 3 locations in Israel (Kfar Sava, Tefen and Omer).

SanDisk 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.[2]
History

Dr. Eli Harari, an Israeli engineer, began making early contributions to EEPROM - electrically
erasable programmable read-only memory, a precursor to flash memory. Harari worked on flash
memory at Intel, leaving to found a start-up which failed. In 1988, Harari launched the company
that would become SanDisk with former Intel colleague Sanjay Mehrotra and former Hughes
Electronics colleague Jack Yuan.[3]

Early on, SanDisk had recognized that digital cameras would need digital storage, and computers
could become ever more mobile and light and would require a similar storage technology. In
1988 Harari offered the flash memory card technology to Kodak for inclusion in their cameras.
Kodak offered to fund the development with the condition that SanDisk offer a three year
exclusive contract for the 'digital film'. Harari and SanDisk rejected the offer, preferring to have
competition in the marketplace.[3]

[edit] Financial information

SanDisk is a component of the GSTI Semiconductor Index.

[edit] Acquisitions

• SanDisk bought M-Systems, a USB flash memory stick maker for

US$1.3 billion in 2006.[4]

[edit] MP3 license dispute

On September 4, 2006 at the IFA show in Berlin, German authorities seized all MP3 players that
were in SanDisk's booth since Italian patent company Sisvel had won an injunction against it
regarding the MP3 format.[5] Sisvel, who had previously filed a separate lawsuit in Mannheim,
claims that SanDisk uses the MP3 format without paying the required licensing fee. On
September 8, 2006, a Berlin court overturned the injunction and SanDisk put the players back on
display.[6]

On March 16, 2007 SanDisk issued a press release announcing they had reached agreement and
now acquired licences for all current and future MP3 applications.[7]

[edit] Products
FlashCP

FlashCP is a digital rights management technology for the storage of electronic materials (e.g. e-
books) on portable devices. FlashCP is targeted primarily at students and allows transportation of
copyrighted material while enforcing copy restrictions against the user. SanDisk acquired the
technology in 2005 with the purchase of Israel-based MDRM. As an avid proponent of DRM,
this is one of many such technologies developed by SanDisk, the other ones being Gruvi pre-
loaded memory cards and the underlying TrustedFlash technology. SanDisk media players have
near universal support for Windows Media DRM and rely almost exclusively on variants of the
copy-protection capable Secure Digital format for removable storage.

Currently, SanDisk manufactures one drive that uses the FlashCP technology, called the
Freedom Drive, which is part of the Cruzer line. Additionally, digital content can be downloaded
to Cruzer Freedom from the SanDisk Plaza, a growing online store offering digital books, music,
games, and education tools. Prices for on line products vary. Many selections are free. Once
downloaded, the digital content may be used online and offline.

In addition, the company has a division named SanDisk Enterprise which develops and
manufactures a secure USB drive. SanDisk Enterprise was created to provide a solution for
enterprises and government agencies to allow mobilization of the corporate computing
environment with password protected USB flash drives. The company attempts to address the
organization's risk management needs.

An SD card, mini SD card, and micro SD card from top to bottom.

The range of SanDisk Cruzer flash drives

16 GB Cruzer Micro.

[edit] Memory Cards

• CompactFlash (1994)
• MultiMediaCard (1997)
• RS-MMC (2004)
• xD-Picture Card
• Secure Digital (2001), miniSD (2003), microSD (2005)
• Gruvi DRM memory cards (2006 - discontinued)
• Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO (2003), Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick
Pro Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo, Memory Stick Micro (M2)

[edit] USB Flash Drives

• Cruzer Slice
• Cruzer Mini
• Cruzer Micro
• Cruzer Micro Skin
• Cruzer Titanium
• Cruzer Titanium Plus
• Ultra Titanium
• Ultra Titanium Plus
• Cruzer Contour
• Extreme Contour
• Ultra Backup
• Cruzer Enterprise (2000), Cruzer Enterprise FIPS Edition
• Cruzer Professional
• Cruzer Profile
• Freedom Drive
 • Cruzer Tag
• Cruzer Snap
• Cruzer Fluer
• Cruzer Slide
• Cruzer Gator
• Cruzer Pattern
• Extreme Cruzer Ducati
• Cruzer Crossfire
• Cruzer Freedom
• Cruzer Blade

[edit] Others

• USB memory card readers

• USB Smart Drives for Console and PC video gaming
• Solid-state drives (SSD)
o iSSD [8]

[edit] Audio and Video Players

Main article: SanDisk Sansa

• Sansa Fuze
• Sansa Connect
• Sansa Shaker
• Sansa Express
• Sansa c200
• Sansa e100
• Sansa e200
• Sansa TakeTV
• Sansa Clip, Clip+
• Sansa View
• slotRadio Player
• slotMusic Player

Data recovery software[9]

• SanDisk RescuePRO
• SanDisk RescuePRO Deluxe

[edit] Partnerships

On September 24, 2007 the SanDisk Corporation announced the SanDisk Enterprise Solutions
Technology Alliance (SESTA).[10] This alliance allows partners to evaluate compatibility and
interoperability of their products with SanDisk’s secure portable hardware and supporting
software, as well as join with SanDisk to raise awareness of best practices in endpoint and
portable data security. SESTA is backed by a roster of founding partners including Check Point
Software Technologies Ltd.; Citrix Systems Inc.; McAfee Inc.; RSA, The Security Division of
EMC; and VeriSign, Inc.
Other companies with cutting-edge security solutions are among the founding partners of
SESTA, including:[11]

• Applied Identity, Inc.

• Centennial Software Limited
• Check Point
• ControlGuard
• CoSoSys
• Diversinet Corp.
• Dmailer
• LC Technology International, Inc.[12]
• Lumension Security (formerly SecureWave)
• MokaFive
• Promisec Ltd.
• RedCannon Security Inc.
• Safend
• Secuware
• SmartLine Inc.
• Sweet Spot Solutions Inc.
• Tablus, Inc.
• Vericept Corporation

[edit] See also

Companies portal

San Francisco Bay

Area portal

• FlashCP
• Flash memory
• Secure USB Drive
• StartKey
• U3
• Central Management and Control
• USB drive
• Sansa
• slotRadio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SanDisk