TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 12 (UPI) -- Israeli Flash memory maker M-Systems announced two technological breakthroughs last week amid a stock-options grants probe of the company.
At Taiwan's Computex conference, the company, along with Calif.-based Centrality Communications, unveiled the mDOC H-series embedded Flash drives, a memory component that improves in-car and portable navigation and multimedia systems, M-Systems said in a company statement.
"Because these navigation systems are (often) in motion, they are subject to vibration and temperature extremes," Centrality Marketing Director David Wang said via the statement.
"In addition to their reliable performance within the in-dash car environment, M-Systems' mDOC H-series embedded Flash drives have advanced security features that can protect maps from tampering or accidental deletion," Wang continued.
M-Systems also announced the mModule uDOC embedded USB Flash drive, a product that, according to a separate company statement, "(enables) the reliable, high-performance storage of data and operating systems within new single board computers."
The company recently postponed an offering of 8.7 million shares because of an internal investigation of "practices such as backdating stock options to take advantage of a low point in the underlying shares (and) spring-loading options by offering them to employees ahead of an anticipated stock jump," according to a report in the Israeli business magazine TheMarker.
"M-Systems and (business software company) Quest are among nearly 30 U.S. companies, mostly in the technology sector, under investigation by federal prosecutors, the (Securities and Exchange Commission) or their own directors" on suspicion of these practices, the report said.
The announcement of the internal probe caused M-Systems stock on the Nasdaq to tumble 15 percent, the report said.
