Phison SSD Controllers Shipped to Kingston Exceeding 18 Million

Phison Electronics Corp. announced combined SSD controller shipments to Kingston Technology Company, Inc. exceeding 18 million units.

This achievement shows Phison’s commitment to R&D investment in collaboration with Kingston to build a portfolio of SSD products.  

Since 2012, Phison has delivered more than 10 SSD controller solutions to Kingston consisting of PATA, SATA, and PCIe.  The latest duo of PCIe 3.0 NVMe controllers, E7 and E8, will continue to drive the next wave of SSD evolution for Kingston’s SSD line as the transition from SATA to PCIe interface continues in 2018.

“Phison’s long-term partnership with Kingston Technology has enabled both companies to have a mutual and consistent understanding of the memory industry,” said KS Pua, chairman and CEO, Phison. “As the 2016 economy recovered, the companies worked closely together to solidify their industry leadership in the SSD market as they continue to expand their market share through 2017, in the midst of a flash shortage situation. SSD controller chip unit shipments this year more than doubled compared to last year. Looking forward, the cooperation between the two companies will be even closer to create new business opportunities and drive further revenue and profit growth.“

The two companies also share common interests in developing and marketing enterprise storage. Phison’s S10 controller powers Kingston’s DC400 SSDs, featuring flexible over-provisioning and performance.

In 2015, the two firm co-invested in Liqid Inc., an enterprise start-up specializing in enterprise storage and composable infrastructure for the enterprise market. 

In 2016, Kingston debuted the DCP1000, the company’s high-performance enterprise SSD, equipped with Liqid’s proprietary RAID technology and Phison’s E7 controller. At its launch, the DCP1000 boasted read and write performance of 6,800MB/s and 1.25 million IO/s.

“Phison and Kingston have enjoyed a close working relationship on many levels for over a decade,” said Nate Steffens, VP of flash memory, Kingston. “Their technology has enabled us to be one of the market leaders for SSDs, USB drives and embedded solutions. With their continued support, Kingston will remain one of the top players now and in the future.”

The partnership extends beyond SSDs. In November of 2010, the two vendors identified the shift from removable cards to NAND embedded in mobile phone devices and joined forces to form Kingston Solutions, Inc. (KSI). This joint venture later expanded to include Toshiba, Micron, and Mediatek. The marriage has proven to be successful, as KSI has now become a significant solution provider to the mobile, IoT, and embedded market, with a range of product offerings, including eMCP, ePOP, eMMC, and UFS.