DIWA Press Release 26/11/04

Amsterdam, 26. November 2004: DIWA (Digital Imaging Websites Association), a world-wide organisation of collaborating websites, today has the pleasure of announcing that the DIWA Innovation Award is granted to the new Extreme III series of SanDisk flash memory cards. The Extreme III cards use the newly developed ESP (Enhanced Super-Parallel Processing) technology. This is a groundbreaking development that provides the world?s highest read and write speeds up to a minimum of 20 megabytes per second (MB/sec.). High-end photographers are in constant search for fast storage products and SanDisk Extreme III is designed to fulfil this need. Beside significantly improved speed, the new cards also feature extended operating temperature range, enabling them to work under virtually any condition.

The ESP technology combines NAND Flash memory chips and 32-bit RISC processing controller chips. The new ESP has super-parallel write and read operations that are coupled with accelerated flash data bus architecture, allowing twice the transfer speed of an average card on today’s market. Thanks to this new technology, the flash card will no longer be the bottleneck during data storage, which was often the case in the past.

The DIWA organisation recognises the importance of this new technology and is therefore pleased to honour SanDisk’s Extreme III product line with the DIWA Innovation Award.

About DIWA
A fast growing independent, authoritative, industry organization
The Digital Imaging Websites Association (DIWA) is a fast growing group of independent Web-based specialist publications dedicated to digital imaging. DIWA harnesses the collective talent and expertise of its members, resulting in industry awards that command unparalleled confidence and value, both for consumers and the industry, alike. DIWA awards come in the form of bronze, silver and gold medals.

Unique bullet-proof test scoring procedure
DIWA product test awards are exclusively decided through the analysis of multiple test scores from different DIWA testers, testing different samples of the same product. A very detailed and comprehensive standardized scoring procedure is employed, tailored carefully for each product category. Multiple testing eliminates the chance of an isolated, unrepresentative product sample or test error, or even hidden bias, from affecting the trustworthiness of the overall result.

Awards throughout the year
DIWA is also unique in its policy in issuing awards for deserving products throughout the year, culminating in annual best of the year Platinum medal awards.

DIWA Awards members:
- Czech Republic:  www.fotoaparat.cz
- Denmark:  www.digitalmagasinet.dk
- Germany:  www.digitalkamera.de
- France:  www.photographyblog.com
- Netherlands:  www.letsgodigital.org
- Norway:  www.digit.no
- Poland:  www.fotopolis.pl
- Slovenia:  www.e-fotografija.com
- Spain:  www.nuevafotografia.com
- Turkey:  www.diginorm.com
- United Kingdom:  www.dp-now.com
- United States:  www.steves-digicams.com

The DIWA multi-lingual Web site
At the heart of the DIWA organisation is its multi-lingual Web site, www.diwa-awards.com, where you can find links to the latest reviews published by DIWA member publications. The site also archives DIWA awards and is designed to aid consumers in their choice of imaging products.

For further information about DIWA please visit our Web site or email us at [email protected].