Document: Complete List of 111 SSD Manufacturers in the World

Making a solid-state disk drive is much easier than manufacturing a magnetic hard disk drive. Mainly, you just have to buy flash chips and assemble them with a controller from your own design or acquired from an outside company .

It's not a lot of investment and that's why many small Asian firms entered into this activity. The key differentiators are not the chips, available from several sources and evolving in parallel, always smaller an smaller. The main component is the controller, each one using different algorithms to manage the complex way of reading and above all writing flash chips.

Today the four most popular units are:

• High-end enterprise SAS SLC or MLC
• 2.5-inch 6Gb SATA MLC
• Faster PCIe or Mini PCIe MLC, and
• Much smaller embedded MLC devices for tablets and mobile devices.

We have counted 111 firms assembling SSDs in the world.

Here are known controller manufacturers:
Adata,
AMP,
Anobit (acquired by Apple),
BiTMICRO Networks,
Corsair,
DensBits Technologies,
Digicube,
EastWho,
G.Skill,
Greenliant Systems,
Hyperstone,
IDT,
JMicron,
Kingston,
Link_A_Media Devices (acquired by SK hynix),
Mach Xtreme Technology,
Marvell,
Mushkin,
Novachips,
OCZ,
OWC,
Patriot,
Phoenix,
Physon Electronics,
PMC-Sierra/Adaptec,
RunCore,
SandForce (acquired by LSI),
Silicon Motion Technology,
Skymedi,
Smart Modular Technologies,
Solid State System,
Solidata,
Soligen,
Super Talent,
TDK/CoreSolid Storage Corporation,
Unigen, and
Viking Modular Solutions.

Manufacturing HDDs needs much more investment, in hundreds of millions of dollars (clean rooms, robotics, lot of employees, etc.). At a time there was hundred of them. Now they are five and this number could reach only three (Seagate, Toshiba, WD). Nobody is going to enter in this activity because the price is too high, the future of the market is not guaranteed, and all the patents are in the hands of current manufacturers.

The manufacturers of NAND flash chips for SSDs are:

• Micron in Lehi, UT, Manasas, VA and Singapore (IMS)
• Samsung in Austin, TX, China and Korea
• Toshiba/SanDisk in Japan
• SK Hynix in China and Korea
  Powerchip in Taiwan

SSD Manufacturers (Country of HQs)

ADATA (Taiwan)
Active Media (USA)
Adlink Technology (Taiwan)
Apple - acquiring Anobit (USA)
Apacer Technology (Taiwan)
APRO (Taiwan)
Asax/Shenzhen Hugetech Electronic Technology Development (China)
Asine (Israel)
ATP Electronics (USA)
Bigboy Technologies (USA)
BiTMICRO Networks (USA)
Biwin Technology (China)
Buffalo Technology (Japan)
Cactus Technologies (Hong Kong)
Calvary Storage (USA)
Centon Electronics (USA)
CoreRise Electronics (China)
CoreSolid Storage (Taiwan)
Corsair Memory (USA)
CosMicro (China)
Crucial.com Micron (USA)
Delkin Devices (USA)
Digicube Technology (China)
Dolphin ICS (Norway)
Dulce Systems (USA)
EDGE Memory (USA)
Elecom (Japan)
Emphase (USA)
EXCEEMO/PETERMANN-TECHNIK (Germany)
Extreme Engineering Solutions (USA)
Foremay (USA)
Fortasa Memory Systems (USA)
Fusion-io (USA)
G.Skill (Taiwan)
Galaxy Data Storage (USA)
Global Wireless Medium (China)
Greenliant Systems (USA)
Hagiwara Sys-Com (Japan)
Hitachi GST - acquired by WD - (Japan)
IEI Technology (Taiwan)
Imation (USA)
InnoDisk (Taiwan)
Integral Memory (UK)
Intel (USA)
I-O Data Device (Japan)
Kingmax Technology (Taiwan)
KingFast (China)
KingSpec (China)
Kingston Digital (USA)
Ketron/Starex (Taiwan)
Lexar Media (USA)
Lite-On IT (Taiwan)
LSI (USA)
Mach Xtreme Technology (Taiwan)
Macrotron Systems (USA)
Memocom (Taiwan)
MemoRight (Taiwan)
Micron Technology - and brand name Crucial - (USA)
Microsemi (USA)
Micross Components/Austin Semiconductor (USA)
Modix (Korea)
Most I&T Afaya (Taiwan)
Mosaid Technologies (Canada)
Mtron (Korea)
Mushkin (USA)
Myung Information Technologies (South Korea)
Netlist (USA)
OCZ Technology (USA)
OWC (USA)
Patriot Memory (USA)
PaxDisk (Korea)
PhotoFast (Taiwan)
Physon Electronics (Taiwan)
Plextor (Japan)
Princeton Technology (USA)
PNY Technologies (USA)
PQI (Taiwan)
Pretec (Taiwan)
pureSilicon (USA)
Renice Technology (China)
Ritek/Ridata (Taiwan)
RunCore (China)
Samsung (South Korea)
SanDisk (USA
Seagate Technology (USA)
Silicon-Power (Taiwan)
Silicon Motion Technology (Taiwan)
SK Hynix (Korea)
Smart Storage Systems (USA)
Solid Access (USA)
Solidata Technology International (China)
sTec (USA)
Strontium Technology (Singapore)
Super Talent (USA)
Swissbit (Switzerland)
Targa Systems (Canada)
TDK/CoreSolid Storage Corporation (Japan)
Team Group (Taiwan)
Texas Memory Systems (USA)
Toshiba (Japan)
Transcend Information (Taiwan)
Unigen (USA)
Verbatim (Japan)
Viking Technology (USA)
Virident Systems (USA)
Virtium (USA)
Walton Chaintech (Taiwan)
WD (USA)
Wilk Electronik (Poland)
X-ES (USA)
Zalman Tech (Korea)