New SanDisk’s High-Performance Ultra II Product With Built-In USB Connectivity

February 21, 2005

SanDisk® Corporation introduced the SanDisk Ultra™ II SD™ PLUS, an innovative SD flash memory card with built-in USB connectivity. The new card, which works seamlessly in any SD card slot, also can be used as a high-speed USB 2.0 flash drive. The announcement was made at the annual Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Show at the Orange County Convention Center where SanDisk is demonstrating products in Booth 2408.

The new dual-functionality device has been added to the SanDisk Ultra II product line, a family of high-performance flash memory cards with write speeds of 9 megabytes (MB) per second and read speeds of 10MB/sec.*

Tanya Chuang, SanDisk retail product marketing manager, said, “The new Ultra II SD PLUS, which can be used in a wide variety of SD-based products—including digital cameras, PDAs, camcorders and camera phones—means greater convenience and cost savings for consumers. Now, to transfer data, images, audio or video between computers, digital cameras and other electronic devices, you don’t need a card reader, cables or card adapters. Just flip the card to engage the USB connector and simply plug the Ultra II SD PLUS into any USB port. And the card also features an LED that blinks when data transfer is taking place to indicate that the card is being used as a USB flash drive.”

She added, “Our advanced mechanical design eliminates the need for a removable cap, which can be lost, and gives consumers a dual functionality card that is fully SD compliant. We believe that the Ultra II SD PLUS will be a much more popular product than any similar device on the market because it is an SD card and SD has become the dominant standard for flash memory cards.”

The Ultra II SD PLUS, which SanDisk expects will start shipping to stores in April, initially will be available in two capacities–512MB and one gigabyte (GB)**. The 512MB card will have a suggested retail price of $109.99 and the 1GB version will carry a suggested price of $149.99.

The Ultra II SD PLUS is targeted primarily at the professional digital camera and prosumer market where 4 mega-pixel or higher resolution digital cameras are requiring significantly faster flash memory film cards. The Ultra II product line, which also includes CompactFlash® and Memory Stick PRO™ card formats, allows photographers to quickly capture high-resolution images and take advantage of the advanced features available today in high mega-pixel digital cameras.

The European Imaging & Sound Association (EISA), the largest editorial multimedia organization in Europe, which represents 50 magazines from 20 countries, named the SanDisk Ultra II line “European Memory Card of the Year 2004-2005” last year. Also, the SanDisk Ultra II CF line of cards last year won the Best Imaging Storage Media Award from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA), which consists of 30 top photography publications from across Europe.

SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world’s largest supplier of flash data storage card products using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.