SEOUL, KOREA - SK Hynix announced on May 30 that it signed a deal to acquire a PCle card business unit from Violin Memory of the United States, a specialist in semiconductor NAND flash-based storage devices. PCIe, or PCI Express, is a high-speed expansion card format that connects a computer with its attached peripherals.
This acquisition is part of SK Hynix's bid to strengthen its technological competitiveness in NAND flash solution areas. Violin Memory, founded in 2005 in Silicon Valley, California, has specialized in NAND flash memory chips. SK Hynix plans to absorb the asset, talent, and patents of the PCle card business and complete the acquisition by the end of June.
PCle card is an interface that mounts SSD on digital devices. Compared to existing SATA interface, PCle card can send 8-GB data 16 times faster and occupies less space, thereby being acclaimed as a next-generation SSD interface.
SSD is a device that uses NAND flash to store information. Compared to HDD which uses magnetic materials, SSD boasts superior stability and higher information processing speed. According to market research firm HIS iSuppli, the demand for SSDs is expected to grow more than 40 percent each in 2014 and 2015.
