SK hynix has entered into an agreement to acquire California-based storage solution company Link_A_Media Devices Corporation (LAMD), a developer of controllers for data storage devices. LAMD, founded in 2004, is a developer of semiconductor system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for the data storage market. These SoC solutions, also called controllers, interface with processors to increase the speed and reliability of Flash memory. Upon completion of the acquisition, LAMD will join SK hynix as a business unit focused on customized NAND based solutions such as SSDs.

The role of the NAND controller in premium products such as e-MMC (embedded Multi Media Card) and SSDs (Solid State Drives) has become increasingly important to meet the high memory densities and improved interface speeds required by end users.

"We expect our NAND Flash competitiveness will be further strengthened by the acquisition of LAMD which has extensive expertise in controller technology and excellent engineering resources. SK hynix will leverage this acquisition and continuously develop value-added NAND solutions and respond to our customers' needs," said Mr. Oh Chul Kwon, President and CEO of SK hynix.

"We are excited to become a part of the SK hynix family. This will enable us to bring our advanced controller solutions to a wide range of data storage products to meet the rapidly increasing demands of the worldwide business and consumer markets," said Dr. Hemant Thapar, Founder and CEO of LAMD.

LAMD has received publicity earlier this month when Corsair announced their Neutron SSD series, which is the first consumer SSD to be based on the LAMD LM87800 controller.