Intel sells its NAND memory business to SK Hynix for a cool $9 billion

South Korean semiconductor giant and memory chipmaker SK Hynix has today announced that that it is acquiring Intel’s NAND business for a sum of $9 billion. The acquisition will give SK Hynix ownership of Intel’s NAND SSD business, the NAND component and wafer business, as well as the Dalian manufacturing facility in China. Intel, on the other hand, will retain the Optane business alongside the memory trademark and will continue to work on it. Both the companies will seek regulatory approval for the deal next year, following which the acquisition will take another four year years to complete in 2025

Intel will retain its Optane memory business

Once SK Hynix gets the approval, it will pay Intel an initial sum of $7 billion to acquire its NAND business, which includes the transfer of NAND SSD-associated intellectual properties and employees in that division, as well as the Dalian facility. The ownership of the remaining assets – which include IP related to manufacturing and designing of NAND flash wafers, R&D employees, and the Dalian facility’s entire workforce – will be transferred in 2025 subject to payment of the remaining $2 billion. 

The deal will see completion in 2025

This will also mark the deal’s completion. But until then, Intel will keep manufacturing NAND wafers at the Dalian facility, and will also retain all the NAND flash-associated design and production IPs. SK Hynix mentions in its press release that the deal will help sharpen the competitive edge of its storage solutions with a special focus on the domain of enterprise SSDs. The South Korean company aims to leverage Intel’s technology to strengthen its portfolio of 3D NAND solutions. 

Both companies are currently awaiting regulatory approval

“I am proud of the NAND memory business we have built and believe this combination with SK Hynix will grow the memory ecosystem for the benefit of customers, partners and employees.” Intel CEO Bob Swan was quoted as saying regarding the deal. “By taking each other`s strengths and technologies, SK hynix will proactively respond to various needs from customers and optimize our business structure, expanding our innovative portfolio in the NAND flash market segment, which will be comparable with what we achieved in DRAM,” said SK Hynix CEO Seok-Hee Lee about the acquisition. 

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SK Hynix launches the world’s first DDR5 RAM modules with up to 64GB capacity

Almost two years after announcing the development of the world’s first 16GB DDR5 DRAM, South Korean memory supplier SK Hynix has launched the world’s first DDR5 RAM modules. However, before you start dreaming about fitting them inside your bulky gaming PC, it will take at least a year or two before they can be equipped inside consumer hardware as SK Hynix is primarily targeting data centers as the core application area. The company notes that the demand for DDR5 memory will only begin to surge next year and is expected to achieve a measly 10% market share in 2022. 

Talking about improvements that the next generation of DRAM modules bring, SK Hynix touts a transfer rate of 4,800 ~ 5,600 Mbps, which is said to be 1.8 times faster than what DDR4 sticks can deliver. It is said to be capable of transmitting nine full-HD movies per second at a transfer rate of 5,600Mbps, assuming each file is around 5GB in size. The DDR5 RAM modules also reduce the operating voltage to 1.1V, down from the DDR4 standard’s 1.2V, reducing power consumption by a 24% margin. 

SK Hynix’s DDR5 RAM is also claimed to offer an Error Correcting Code (ECC) feature baked inside the chip that can correct 1-bit level errors on its own, thereby boosting the reliability of apps by a factor of 20X. The South Korean company’s new DDR5 DRAM modules will be offered in capacities ranging from 8GB to 64GB, but sticks of up to 256GB capacity can also be configured by using the through-silicon-via (TSV) technology. 

The evolution of DRAM modules up to the DDR5 standard.

SK Hynix claims that its DDR5 RAM modules are tailored for Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) applications. Plus, they also help reduce power consumption and operating costs of data centers, which means they are also more eco-friendly compared to their previous-gen iterations. Meanwhile, over in the world of smartphones, devices packing LPDDR5 RAM have already arrived in the hands of consumers.

Source: SK Hynix

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South Korea investing in more than just memory chips

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Samsung and SK hynix have a very tight grip on the memory chip market, but the industry now has to fend off Chinese competitors in SoC development.

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Class action building against Samsung, SK Hynix over RAM price hikes

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Prices for RAM chips fell by 60 percent between 2014 and 2016. And then the prices started to go back up. And everyone’s smartphones and laptops were just a bit more expensive.

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Toshiba decides to sell chip business to SK Hynix group, backed by Apple

The mobile memory chip market is dominated by Samsung and SK Hynix may be able to finally take on its domestic cohort with this deal.

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Toshiba chip business sale back to square one after SK Hynix hostility

The South Korean rival, which would've only operated the business, was reportedly looking for equity, too — a no-go for Toshiba.

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How the iPhone 8 ruined the Huawei P10 for memory freaks

Apple is throwing its weight around by commanding a lot of production capacity for memory chips, leaving the competition in jitters.

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How the iPhone 8 ruined the Huawei P10 for memory freaks

Apple is throwing its weight around by commanding a lot of production capacity for memory chips, leaving the competition in jitters.

The post How the iPhone 8 ruined the Huawei P10 for memory freaks appeared first on Pocketnow.

Apple joins long list of interested Toshiba chip business buyers/investors

The potential-brimming chip division of the otherwise struggling Toshiba Corporation has reportedly attracted Apple's interest now.

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