Samsung Electronics Launches Compact Flash™ card Biz

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it is launching a new line of high-capacity CompactFlash Type I card. Samsung's new line of CompactFlash Type I card is now available in densities of 8MB, 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB and 512MB. The company will introduce a 1GB CF card in the third quarter of 2002. Samsung also plans to enter the MultiMediaCard market in the fourth quarter of 2002 with the introduction of a range of high-capacity MultiMediaCard .

Samsung Electronics, a leading supplier of NAND Flash memories will provide its expertise in a variable portfolio of open standard cards -- CompactFlash Type I card and MultiMediaCard . And by expanding its presence into the global open standard card market, the company expects to contribute to the introduction of high capacity and high performance memory cards. "Now the Flash memory market has the high-capacity, high-speed, CompactFlash Type I cards essential for the success of next-generation portable digital imaging devices," said Mr. YunSeung Shin, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd. "Samsung is right on track to ensure that CompactFlash technology evolves to meet every need of this rapidly emerging market."

CompactFlash Type I cards are the industry's most widely used digital storage cards. Their high storage capacity expands a device's functionality. This is increasingly necessary as digital camera resolution rises and MP3 players store more songs. Samsung's CompactFlash Type I cards are also ideal for other handheld devices including PDAs, cell phones and sub-notebook PCs.

All Samsung CompactFlash Type I cards are equipped with a NAND Flash memory and a built-in Samsung ATA controller that greatly improves the write performance of the card. Such major feature improvements contribute to the company's competitive edge thereby enhancing cost effectiveness.

Samsung CompactFlash Type I card consumes less than five percent of the power that is required to operate disk drives of the same capacity. All of Samsung's new CompactFlash Type I cards support both 3.3V and 5V operation from a single power supply.

In the year 2001, Samsung sold a total of $ 359 million NAND Flash memory devices. The memory card market -- a major sector of the world data storage market -- will be able to enjoy Samsung's quality products as the company introduces the CompactFlash card line up to its product portfolio. Samsung, which has been solely dependent on the SmartMedia Card as its only available memory card format, now expands its service to variable memory card standards. Flash memory is the fastest growing segment of the semiconductor industry. Market Watcher, an industry research firm, forecasts that the Flash memory market will grow 26 percent this year (from 10 billion US$ in 2002, to 16 billion US$ in 2003). Samsung currently holds a 35 percent Flash memory market share and plans to achieve leading supplier status by the year 2005 by offering cutting-edge devices in an extensive range of configurations and densities.

About CompactFlash Cards

CompactFlash Type I cards are designed with Flash technology, a non-volatile storage solution that does not require a battery to retain data indefinitely. CompactFlash storage products are solid state, meaning they contain no moving parts, and provide users with much greater protection of their data than conventional magnetic disk drives. They are five to ten times more rugged and reliable than disk drives. CompactFlash Type I cards weigh half an ounce and are the size of a matchbook.