SanDisk Modular SSD Selected By ASUS For New Eee Slate Tablet

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), the global leader in flash memory cards, today announced that its 32 gigabyte (GB)¹ and 64GB SanDisk^® P4 modular solid state drives (pSSD) were selected by ASUS as the SSDs of choice for its new Eee Slate EP121 tablet computers introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The ASUS Eee Slate EP121 tablet uses SanDisk's P4 modular solid state drive (pSSD). (Photo: Business Wire)

The SanDisk P4 SSD fits ASUS’ thin design and low power consumption requirements for its newest tablet. SSDs use flash memory technology and have no moving parts, offering improved durability that helps prevent data loss resulting from drive failure. SSD-equipped devices can run quieter, cooler and come in smaller form factors than are possible with conventional hard disk drives (HDD).

The new ASUS Eee Slate EP121 tablet offers a broad array of features that combine to create a versatile tablet that enables a productive and enjoyable consumer experience.

• Running Microsoft Windows 7 home premium edition OS with an Intel^® Core™ i5 processor, the tablet is ideal for media creation and consumption for on-the-go productivity with the power of a laptop and the flexibility of a tablet.
• With its 12-inch high-resolution touch screen, wide-view angle, thin size (312 x 207.2 x 16.95mm) and total weight of 1.16Kg, the ASUS Eee Slate EP121 is ideal for on-the-go businesspeople who need an advanced computing device that can easily be taken anywhere.
• With no moving parts, the SanDisk P4 SSD contributes to the 10-hour battery life of the tablet, allowing consumers to operate the Eee Slate EP121 for an entire business day or overseas flight without having to recharge.

"The ASUS Eee Slate tablet is a prime example of the latest high-performance tablets that take full advantage of solid state drives,” said Doreet Oren, director, product marketing, SSD, SanDisk. "Thin, highly mobile designs, strong performance, long battery life and exceptional durability are key requirements that the SanDisk P4 SSD meets and exceeds. As we continue to design and supply SSDs for the PC OEM industry, SanDisk has developed expertise in building storage components that allow manufacturers to create smaller, lighter and faster tablets.”

"The large storage capacity and small form factor of SanDisk’s P4 SSD contribute to the highly functional design and ease of mobility that the Eee Slate EP121 tablet offers," said Zing Chen, Eee Slate EP121 product manager, ASUSTeK Computer Inc. "Consumers can now enjoy the functionality of a laptop in the versatile form of a tablet.”

The SanDisk P4 SSD includes an industry-standard mSATA interface and a Mini PCIe form factor, delivering a variety of features that complement the ultra-thin Eee Slate EP121 tablet. The P4 SSD’s compact size (weighing less than 6.0 grams and measuring 30mm x 50.95mm x 3.4mm) and low power consumption (average power of ^. 0.18W^2,3) make it well-suited to the ASUS tablet’s form factor and extended battery life requirements.

SanDisk's P4 SSD can deliver greater performance to consumers through increased system responsiveness. SanDisk AFM implementation for SanDisk P4 SSD uses nCache^TM4 acceleration technology, a large non-volatile write cache technology that boosts burst random write performance of 4KB up to 600 IOPS⁵. nCache technology improves user responsiveness and helps prevent incidence of drive "stalling" and "hiccups.”

SanDisk P4 SSDs come in a variety of form factors including mSATA mini and a BGA iSSD. The drives are available to OEMs in capacities ranging from 4GB to 128GB. More information about SanDisk's P4 SSD is available at: www.sandisk.com/pssd.

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.

¹ 1 gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes.

² While running MobileMark and average (typical) power.

³ Assumes DIPM (Device Initiated Power Management) is enabled.

⁴ nCache™ acceleration technology is a large Non Volatile Write Cache, a unique feature in SanDisk SSD P4 that improves random write performance and ensures an improved user experience. Studies show that modern operating systems mostly access the storage device using 4k access blocks. The cache is filled during these small write commands and emptied during idle time when the host is not accessing the drive, with no risk of data loss. For a typical everyday use, the write performance that the users see is the nCache (burst) high performance, and not steady state (sustained) SanDisk SSD P4 performance. Based on IOmeter 4k random write test.

⁵ Based on I0Meter 2003.12.16 benchmark measurements where SanDisk P4 SSD is tested as a secondary device.

SanDisk’s product and executive images can be downloaded from

http://www.sandisk.com/corporate/media.asp

SanDisk’s web site/home page address: http://www.sandisk.com

© 2011 SanDisk Corporation. SanDisk and the SanDisk logo are trademarks of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. nCache 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 applications, features, markets, 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: the market demand for our products may grow more slowly than our expectations, our products may not be available in the geographies or capacities that we anticipate, our products may not perform as expected and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. We do not intend to update the information contained in this press release.

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