Cruzer Provides Connectivity And Interoperability Between Notebook Computers And Digital Consumer Electronics

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2002--SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK - News) announced today that its Cruzer, an upgradeable USB "key chain" portable storage device, will be bundled for sale with the new Compaq Presario Notebook PC 3000 series from HP. SanDisk officials believe this move will accelerate the PC and notebook industry trend of phasing out floppy disk drives and replacing them with Cruzer USB flash memory drives that conveniently plug into computer USB ports.

The announcement was made at Fall COMDEX where SanDisk is conducting press briefings at the Las Vegas Hilton, room 1569.

A Cruzer with a 4 megabyte (MB) SanDisk MultiMediaCard, a "starter" card for Cruzer users, will be bundled for sale with new Compaq Presario 3000 notebook PCs starting immediately in the United States. Presario owners will be able to upgrade the Cruzer, which accepts both MultiMediaCards and SD (Secure Digital(TM)) cards, to larger capacities as SanDisk sells SD cards ranging in size up to 256MB and MultiMediaCards up to 64MB. Future generations of SD cards will enable the usage of even higher capacity Cruzers.

Bo Ericsson, SanDisk's vice president of OEM marketing, said, "HP clearly sees the value of removing the floppy disk offering and instead giving consumers a much more versatile storage device such as the Cruzer. While a floppy disk has a capacity of only 1.4MB, Cruzers can store up to 256MB on an SD card enabling users to store data, music, video or photos. The data transfer speeds on a Cruzer are significantly faster than that of a floppy disk. The Cruzer has another significant advantage because SD cards have great interoperability. They can also be used in more than 170 products already introduced with SD slots, including a large number of digital cameras, printers, PDAs and cell phones."

"HP is leading the digital imaging revolution," said Kevin Frost, vice president of worldwide notebook marketing, HP Personal Systems Group. "SanDisk's Cruzer provides our notebook customers with massive storage and convenience for managing all types of digital media like photos, music, and documents."

The SanDisk Cruzer is capturing the attention of PC producers for several reasons including the fact that it uses removable, upgradeable memory cards while most other USB drives are sold with embedded, non-removable memory. Cruzer styling also fits well with the modern looks of today's PC systems.

SanDisk, the world's largest supplier of flash data storage products, designs, manufactures and markets industry-standard, solid-state data, digital imaging and audio storage products using its patented, high density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is based in Sunnyvale, CA.

This news release may contain certain forward looking statements including our expectations for future product sales, that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate and may significantly and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations, which may include the timely introduction and acceptance of new consumer products, and slower than expected growth in the emerging markets for our products. Future results may differ materially from those previously reported. The matters discussed in this news release may also contain forward looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties as described under the caption, "Factors That May Affect Future Results" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K-A and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company assumes no obligation to update the information in this release.

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

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