SSD penetration in ultrabooks to soar in 2013, says LSI executive

Josephine Lien, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 13 December 2012]

The penetration of solid-state drives (SSD) in ultrabooks is set to climb dramatically in 2013, according to Philip Brace, executive VP of LSI's newly-formed storage solutions group.

Brace said frankly that demand for ultrabooks has been a disappointment thus far in 2012, mainly due to their high prices. However, ultrabooks should soon see rapid adoption among consumers, which will drive demand for either pure SSDs or hybrid drives, Brace noted.

LSI's SSD controllers have been adopted by more than 50 customers, including NAND flash suppliers and retail channel clients, said Brace, adding that brisk demand for SSDs used in ultrabooks is expected to create huge demand for its controllers in 2013.

Flash chipmakers Intel, Micron Technology, Toshiba and Samsung Electronics, and dedicated module firms Kingston Technology and Adata Technology reportedly are among LSI's clients.

Enterprise-end applications, such as servers, will play another key demand driver for SSD controllers in 2013, Brace indicated. Shipments of enterprise SSDs to OEM customers and also retail markets are set to boom, Brace said.

LSI in early 2012 completed its acquisition of SandForce, which specialized in the design and development of flash memory controllers for SSDs.

In other news, industry observers speculate that LSI's SSD controllers are mainly manufactured at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) using the foundry's 40nm process technology. LSI will have its next-generation chips for SSDs built using 28nm as early as the end of 2013, according to the observers.

Phil Brace, LSI executive VP for storage solutions
Photo: Josephine Lien, Digitimes, December 2012