South Korean company SK Hynix announced today it will increase its investments in NAND flash memory. The company has announced it has established a research and development (R&D) center in Taiwan. The new Taiwanese R&D center will focus on on the development of high value-added NAND flash memory products.
SK Hynix is world's second largest flash memory manufacturer and while the company is not an established brand for SSDs, it would be no surprise if the opening of this R&D center will be start of something bigger.
The company acquired SSD controller developer Link A Media Device (LAMD) in June last year which gives the company the opportunity to develop their SSDs with their own NAND flash and controllers.
As the SSD market is heavily competitive, analysts expect that mainly SSD brands with their own NAND supply and controller development will survive. SK Hynix begun shipping SSDs with the LAMD developers in the third quarter of this year already, the product range includes 2.5" and mSATA drives.
"SK Hynix will combine the existing R&D competence and the capability of this Taiwan R&D center to strengthen the competitiveness in supplying total NAND solutions and actively respond to various demands from the market and the customers," the company said in a statement.
