Seagate and Samsung team up to develop flash memory chips

August 12, 2010 | Dean Takahashi

Seagate and Samsung announced today they have teamed up to create control devices for flash memory chips.

Under the deal, the companies will jointly develop and cross-license controller technologies for solid state drive (SSD) flash memory storage devices, which will be used in demanding enterprise storage applications.

Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Seagate is the world’s biggest hard drive maker, while Samsung is the biggest flash chip maker. The alliance suggests that the technology is getting so expensive to make that these two titans have to team up to produce it. The alliance combines Seagate’s enterprise storage technology with Samsung’s 30-nanometer MLC NAND (a flavor of flash memory) technology. The deal also shows that neither company is religious about the clash between hard drives and flash memory chips as primary storage devices.

“Seagate has long recognized that solid state technology has an important role to play in the comprehensive solutions the storage industry will deliver today and in the future, particularly in the enterprise market,” said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and chief executive. “Today’s agreement with Samsung will help us bring a compelling set of SSD innovations to the enterprise storage market, with benefits that range from enhanced performance, endurance and reliability to cost and capacity improvements.

Changhyun Kim, senior vice president at Samsung Electronics’ chip business, said the technology in question is focused on more energy-efficient memory chips for server applications.

[photo credit: geek.com]

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Tags: chips, SSD

About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

http://venturebeat.com/2010/12/06/flash-memory-the-hottest-enterprise-it-trend-you%e2%80%99ve-never-heard-of/ The hottest enterprise IT trend you’ve never heard of | VentureBeat

[...] Unlike virtualization, flash memory in the enterprise will not grab your attention because of a single company (à la VMware), but rather because of the depth and breadth of solutions that will pervade the market. There is an ecosystem building around enterprise flash memory that will enable continuous improvements in cost, performance, and reliability at all stages of the value chain. There will be everything from semiconductor components to complete systems, plug-in server cards, flash appliances, and flash delivered in rotating disk form factors (SSDs) for ease of system deployment by the large storage and server players. And, of course, there will be software companies that will engineer more performance, reliability, and availability into the solutions. In the first wave of flash deployments, you’ll likely hear about companies such as Avere, GridIron, FusionIO, Nimble Storage, OCZ, Pliant Technology, Pure Storage, Sandforce, and STEC. In the next wave, the big guys will follow. [...]