SanDisk Introduces Automotive Grade Flash Storage Solutions for Infotainment Systems and the Fast-Growing ‘Connected Car’ Market

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash storage solutions, today introduced a new suite of robust, automotive grade NAND flash solutions designed for next-generation ‘connected cars’ and automotive infotainment systems. SanDisk Automotive storage solutions are optimized to bring reliable, high-performance storage to a wide range of in-vehicle applications, including 3D mapping and advanced augmented reality in navigation systems, entertainment systems, intuitive driver assist technology, data event recorders, and more. By providing the responsiveness and capacity of SanDisk flash storage technology, SanDisk Automotive solutions offer the potential for car manufacturers to continue to push the boundaries of connected car application experience.

Today’s vehicles are rapidly becoming more technologically sophisticated, with many featuring advanced connected applications that were once only possible on a smartphone. A recent Gartner Research report forecasted that “about one in five vehicles on the road worldwide will have some form of wireless network connection by 2020, amounting to more than 250 million connected vehicles in service”1

“Flash is enabling dramatic innovation in the auto industry and is expected to transform the car into one of the most connected devices we own,” said Drew Henry, senior vice president and general manager, Mobile and Connected Solutions, SanDisk. “Our vertical integration and deep flash expertise uniquely enables us to architect our automotive grade storage solutions to provide the responsiveness needed to support new and emerging connected applications, as well as offer the reliability and trusted performance that’s absolutely critical for the automotive market.”

The SanDisk Automotive portfolio of storage solutions includes an automotive grade SanDisk® SD™ card and iNAND™ embedded flash drive (EFD), which are available to automotive manufacturers in capacities up to 64GB2. Leveraging SanDisk’s innovative proprietary flash storage architectures, these solutions bring superior experiences to data-intensive automotive infotainment and connected car applications, enabling maps to load fast, improving touch-screen responsiveness, and reducing potential interference from driving on uneven or rough roadways.

SanDisk Automotive storage solutions are built to meet the intense reliability, endurance, quality and temperature demands of the automotive market, and are AEC-Q100 certified.SanDisk’s end-to-end vertical integration heightens quality control, from flash memory wafer manufacturing to product assembly, test and analysis, to customer implementation. In addition, SanDisk is working closely with leading automotive chipset vendors to optimize the new automotive grade storage solutions for use with the latest application processors, further streamlining the implementation process for auto makers.

“It is increasingly becoming clear that tier 1 auto makers will no longer just compete on the road-performance, comfort and gas mileage they offer, but also the infotainment and connected car experiences they deliver to drivers. For these types of applications, the responsiveness and capacity of flash makes it the ideal storage medium,” said Richard Robinson, Director of the Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics.

SanDisk Automotive storage solutions are the latest additions to SanDisk’s full portfolio of flash storage solutions for mobile and connected devices, including SanDisk’s iNAND EFD, microSD™ card and SD card product families. These products offer trusted flash storage to smartphones, tablets, e-readers, digital living room, automotive and other connected devices.

• Up to 64GB
• Works in temperatures from -40oC to 85oC
• Enhanced power immunity
• Up to 2 boot/2 user partitions
• Meets AEC-Q100 specifications

SanDisk Automotive iNAND EFD only:

• eMMC 4.51 HS200 specification
• Up to 30 sequential write/ up to 120MB/s sequential read3

Samples of SanDisk Automotive storage solutions are currently available to leading automotive manufacturers worldwide. Additional information is available to automotive manufacturers through their SanDisk sales representative.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, is a global leader in flash storage solutions. For more than 25 years, SanDisk has expanded the possibilities of storage, providing trusted and innovative products that have transformed the electronics industry. Today, SanDisk’s quality, state-of-the-art solutions are at the heart of many of the world’s largest data centers, and embedded in advanced smartphones, tablets and PCs. SanDisk’s consumer products are available at hundreds of thousands of retail stores worldwide. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.

1 Gartner, Inc., Predicts 2015: The Internet of Things, December 30, 2014.
2 1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes. Actual user storage is less.
3 Based on internal testing; performance may vary based on capacity, application and usage. 1MB=1,000,000 bytes.

© 2015 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. iNAND is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation. SD and microSD are trademarks of SD-3C, LLC.

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including expectations for markets and market growth, industry trends, customers, new technologies and applications and product introductions, availability, capabilities and performance, 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 connected car and infotainment systems markets and demand for our storage solutions may not develop or grow as expected or our storage solutions may not be available at the time or in the capacities or quantities that we expect or perform as expected, or the other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q. We do not intend to update the information contained in this news release.