TOKYO -- Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has entered into a technology licensing agreement with Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., under which Samsung will manufacture and market Solid-State Floppy-Disk Cards (SSFDC) that are completely compatible with Toshiba's products in key technical specifications, such as card size and pin-configuration. Samsung's support for SSFDC is expected to provide a strong impetus for the spread of this innovative small memory card.

SSFDC combines small size with simple structure: It consists of a NAND flash memory chip embedded in a thin plastic card, only one third the size of a standard credit card. This simple design offers the most cost-efficient memory card available. The agreement will assure stable supply of the cards, which are highly suited to application in mobile multimedia products, including digital still cameras and personal digital assistants (PDA).

In April, Toshiba Corporation and 4 other companies, Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Sega Enterprises, Ltd., Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. and Tokyo Electron Ltd. jointly established the SSFDC Forum to promote SSFDC as an industry standard for a super-small data storage medium. 40 companies have already announced their membership of the SSFDC Forum.

Toshiba and Samsung already have a cooperative relationship for the manufacture of NAND flash memory chips, under a 1992 agreement. This was supplemented by a 1995 agreement to cover joint development of 64-megabit NAND chips. The latest agreement for SSFDC technology transfer allows the two companies to further expand their partnership in NAND applications.

Toshiba is now mass-producing 2MB SSFDC, and is working on 1MB, 4MB and 8MB versions to meet users' varied needs. Future versions of the device will also beyond 8MB.

Main specifications of SSFDC

Dimensions	45.0 x 37.0 x 0.76mm
Weight	1.8g
Flash memory type	NAND flash memory
Memory capacity	A 2 megabyte version is now mass produced. 1, 4 and 8 megabyte versions are under development.

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Outline of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Headquarters	Seoul, Korea
Vice-chairman & CEO	K.H. Kim
Capital	3,42 billion won
Number of employees	70,000
Business Category	Production and sales of semiconductors, information and telecommunications systems, home appliances and multimedia products

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Features of SSFDC

1. Simple structure, low cost

A very simple structure embeds a NAND flash memory on a small, thin plastic base to realize a lower cost than any other memory cards. This makes SSFDC suitable for use in private digital data libraries storing image, audio and data recorded on digital equipment, including digital still cameras, voice recorders and PDA.

2. High speed data erase/write

Use of NAND-type flash memory allows individual sectors of the chip to be written at high speed, allowing data or programs to be amended without having to entirely rewrite the whole memory.

3. Very thin card

The card is 0.76mm thick, much thinner than that of any other mini memory cards, assuring high suitability for application in portable equipment, and allowing it to be slipped into a wallet, pocket or bag.

4. Pin-compatible capacity expansion

2-megabyte SSFDC are now mass-produced. As larger capacity memory chips become available, the capacity of SSFDC will be expanded to 4 and then 8 megabytes, while retaining the same pin count.

5. Compatibility with PC card

Used with an ATA PC card adapter, SSFDC can be used as a standard PC card.