SK Hynix is set to launch the production of 21-nanometer DRAMs and 36-stack 3D NAND flash memory chips within the first quarter of this year.
With this plan, SK Hynix plans to narrow its technology gap with Samsung Electronics from one year and six months to less than six months. Since it was affiliated into the SK Group, however, its technological development remained sluggish, raising questions whether it can succeed in narrowing the gap.
Since it was acquired by SK Group, SK Hynix has enjoyed strong performance. After posting an operating profit of 1.05 trillion won in the first quarter of 2014, SK Hynix has passed the 1-trillion-won mark in annual operating profit for seven straight quarters.
This trend, however, began fizzling from the latter half of last year. Its quarterly operating profit fell below the 1-trillion-won level in the fourth quarter of last year primarily due to the decline in DRAM prices. Even internally, the schedule for the development of micro-processing technology was put on the shelf.
