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DRAM makers emulate the HDD business by devouring the competition

Subject: General Tech | March 20, 2013 - 01:02 PM |
Tagged: DRAM, micron, ssd, Samsung, Hynix

It is perhaps not obvious to many because of the huge number of DRAM resellers but there are only three major manufacturers of DRAM left at this point.  Apart from Micron, who claim top spot in this article on The Register, Samsung and Hynix are the only other big players left supplying DRAM.  Considering the instability of memory and SSD pricing it seems odd that it is a component with only three possible sources, the instability could be coming from the fact that many of the mergers are still rather recent or in the case of Elpida, not quite complete yet.  One very interesting comment from Kipp Bedard, Micron's investor relations VP, might also explain the volatilty of flash, "there simply isn't enough NAND fab capacity to store even 20 per cent of the data people are generating."   If demand outstrips supply by that order of magnitude you can dictate almost any price you wish.

micron-logo.png

"When I first started at Micron, there were about 40 to 50 DRAM companies in the space," said Bedard. "And we spent most of the '80s with the Japanese deciding they wanted to own the DRAM space which they went from 10 per cent market share to about 90 per cent, [and] took all of the US companies out except for two, us and Texas Instruments."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

Source: The Register

Hynix does Sandforce SSDs as well as LAMD

Subject: Storage | September 17, 2012 - 07:34 PM |
Tagged: Hynix, Strontium Hawk Series, ssd, SandForce SF-2281, synchronous NAND

Hynix jumped into the world of SSDs with the first model containing a LAMD controller, their Neutron series.  Obviously Hynix are not limiting themselves to that controller as the release of the new Strontium Hawk series demonstrates, with the well known SF-2281 controller making an appearance.  When the SSD Review began their testing they expected results in line with other SandForce based drives but soon found themselves very pleasantly surprised.  With compressed data, this drive surpassed other 120GB models and kept up with some 240GB models, a very impressive feat but not as impressive as the results they saw when checking out the incompressible data benchmarks.  It would seem that Hynix has found a way to beef up performance in a way no other SandForce drive has managed yet.  This review is well worth checking out.

SSDR_SSDFront1.jpg

"The production of a non-LAMD based SSD for Hynix is actually not that shocking as an exclusive contract between Corsair and LAMD was in place long before the Hynix purchase. The length of this contract is not known, however, it accounts for probably one of the smartest moves made by Corsair to date. The performance of their newly released LAMD controlled Neutron Series has taken the industry by storm and can be seen in our recent review of both the Neutron and Neutron GTX."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

Source: SSD Review

SK Hynix to acquire Link_a_Media Devices for $248 million

Subject: Storage | June 20, 2012 - 11:13 PM |
Tagged: Link_a_Media, LAMD, Hynix

First OCZ buys Indilinx, then LSI buys SandForce, and now for another acquisition:

You may recall Link_a_Media devices seemingly coming out of nowhere these past few weeks, releasing an SSD controller present in the new Corsair Neutron Series of devices, and scoring an award at Computex. Even though the new LAMD controller is brand new and largely untested, it has gotten enough traction to be scooped up by a larger company - in this case Hynix. Hynix is a big name in RAM devices. We frequently see Hynix RAM in our SSD reviews, and the parts also appear in much of the shipping DDR3 RAM. More to follow as news continues to flow (and especially once Corsair Neutron reviews start appearing).

Link_a_Media Devices has been around for a while, though not in the SSD market. They have previously made chips integral to Toshiba HDD's.

Press blast after the break.

Source: Hynix Press Release

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