Milestone: 200 SSD Makers Worldwide

Today it’s a milestone as we counted as much 200 SSD makers in the world, to be compared to only 3 manufacturers of competive HDDs.

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. Consequently, 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 more and more layers. The main component is the controller, each one using different algorithms to manage the complex way of reading and above all writing flash chips.

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 only three (Seagate, Toshiba, WD/HGST). 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.

First known SSD: The first commercial flash-based SSD was shipped by SanDisk in 1991. It was a 20MB unit in a PCMCIA configuration, and sold in OEM for around $1,000 and was used by IBM in a ThinkPad laptop.

Highest capacity SSD: Nimbus Data ExaDrive DC, 3.5-inch, 100TB

Fastest SSD: Liqid Element LQD4500, 24GB/s), with NVMe Gen 4.0×16 and TLC 3D NAND

Most expansive SSD (when price announced): Nimbus Data ExaDrive DC, 3.5-inch, 100TB, $40,000

Number of SSD makers by country:

SSD Manufacturers (country of HQs)
AC&NC (USA)
ADATA (Taiwan)
Active Media (USA)
Adlink Technology (Taiwan)
Adtec (Japan)
Advantech (Taiwan)
Allone Solution (Taiwan)
amp inc (USA)
Angelbird Technologies (Austria)
APdate (Germany)
Aplicata Technologies (Canada)
Asine (Israel)
Angelbird Technologies (Austria)
Apple – acquiring Anobit (USA)
Apacer Technology (Taiwan)
Apotop (Taiwan)
APRO (Taiwan)
Asine (Israel)
Asura Technology (USA)
ASUS Republic of Gamers (Taiwan)
ATP Electronics (Taiwan)
Avant Technology (USA)
Avexir Technologies (Taiwan)
Axtremex Technology (UK)
Beijing Memblaze Technology (China)
Bigboy Technologies (USA)
BiTMICRO Networks (USA)
Biostar (Taiwan)
Biwin Technology (China)
Buffalo Technology (Japan)
Cactus Technologies (Hong Kong, China))
Calvary Storage (USA)
Cardwave Services (UK)
Centon Electronics (USA)
Cervoz (Taiwan)
Colorful Technology (Shenzhen, China)
Conversant Intellectual Property Management (Canada) – formerly Mosaid
CoreRise Electronics (China)
CoreSolid Storage (Taiwan)
Corsair Memory (USA)
Crucial.com Micron (USA)
Curvature (USA)
DapuStor (China)
Delkin Devices (USA)
DERA (Taiwan)
Diablo Technologies (Canada)
Dolphin ICS (Norway)
Dulce Systems (USA)
EDGE Memory (USA)
Elecom (Japan)
EmBestor Technolog (Taiwan)
Emphase (USA)
Emtec (France)
Essencore/KLEVV (Hong-Kong)
Exascend (formerly Memoright) (Taiwan)
EXCEEMO/PETERMANN-TECHNIK (Germany)
Extreme Engineering Solutions (USA)
Fadu (USA)
Fastor Systems (USA)
Flexxon Global (Hong Kong)
Foremay (USA)
Fortasa Memory Systems (USA)
Fujifilm (Japan)
Fusion-io  – acquired by SanDisk (USA)
G.Skill (Taiwan)
GALAXY Microsystems (Hong Kong)
Gigabyte Technology (Taiwan)
GLYN (Xmore) (Germany)
Global Wireless Medium (China)
Goke US Research Laboratory (USA)
Green House (Japan)
Greenliant Systems (USA)
GS Nanotech (Russia)
Hagiwara Sys-Com (Japan)
HGST – acquired by WD (USA)
Huawei (China)
ICP Deutschland (Germany)
JetIO Technology (China)
IEI Technology (Taiwan)
Imation (USA)
IMSolution (Taiwan)
InnoDisk (Taiwan)
Insignis Technology (USA)
IoSwitch (USA)
Integral Memory (UK)
Intel (USA)
I-O Data Device (Japan)
JMR (USA)
Kimtigo (China)
Kingdisk Century Technology (China)
Kingmax Technology (Taiwan)
KingFast (China)
KingSpec (China)
Kingston Digital (USA)
Kioxia (Japan)
Ketron/Starex (Taiwan)
Legacy Electronics (USA)
Lexar Media (USA)
Liqid (USA)
LSI / Avago  / Broadcom (USA)
Mach Xtreme Technology (Taiwan)
Macronix (Taiwan)
Macrotron Systems (USA)
Mangstor (USA)
Memocom (Taiwan)
MemxPro (Taiwan)
Mercury Systems (USA)
Micron Technology – and brand name Crucial – (USA)
Minerva Innovation (Taiwan)
Microsemi (USA)
Micross Components/Austin Semiconductor (USA)
Modix (Korea)
Most I&T Afaya (Taiwan)
Mushkin (USA)
MyDigitalSSD (Taiwan)
Myung Information Technologies (South Korea)
Netac Technology (China)
Netlist (USA)
NGD Systems (USA)
Nimbus Data (USA)
Novachips (Korea)
OCZ /Toshiba (USA)
Optiarc (Vinpower) USA
Origin Storage (UK)
Ortial Technologies (UK)
OWC (USA)
Palit Microsystems (Taiwan)
Patriot Memory (USA)
PaxDisk (Korea)
PetaIO (USA, China, Korea)
Phoenix International Systems (USA)
Phison Electronics (Taiwan)
PhotoFast (Taiwan)
Plextor (Japan)
PNY Technologies (USA)
PQI (Taiwan)
Pretec (Taiwan)
Princeton Technology (USA)
pureSilicon (USA)
Ramaxel Technology (China)
Radian Memory Systems (USA)
Recadata (China)
Renice Technology (China)
Ritek/Ridata (Taiwan)
RunCore Innovation Technology (China)
Sabrent (USA)
Sage Microelectronics (China)
Samsung (South Korea)
SanDisk / WD (USA)
ScaleFlux (USA)
Seagate Technology (USA)
SecureDrives (UK)
Shannon Systems (China)
Shenzhen New KingFast Storage Technology (China)
Silicon-Power (Taiwan)
Silicon Motion Technology (Taiwan)
SK Hynix (Korea)
SMART High Reliability Solutions (USA)
Smart IOPS (USA)
Smart Storage Systems (USA)
Solid Access (USA)
Solidata (China)
Solid State Storage Technology Corporation (SSSTC) (Taiwan) , formerly Lite-On Storage SBG
Soligen (USA)
Sonnet Technologies (USA)
Sony (Japan)
Storageflex (Canada)
Strontium Technology (Singapore)
Super Talent (USA)
Supertechina (Shanghai) Electronic
Swissbit (Switzerland)
Synology (Taiwan)
Targa Systems (Canada)
TDK/CoreSolid Storage Corporation (Japan)
Team Group (Taiwan)
Techman Electronics (China) 
The-AiO (Korea)
TeleCommunication Systems Inc. (USA)
Texas Memory Systems (USA)
TIGO Technology (Taiwan)
Trans International (USA)
Transcend Information (Taiwan)
Unigen (USA)
V&G Information Systems (China)
V7/Ingram Micro) (USA)
Verbatim (Japan)
NGD Systems, Inc. (USA)
Viking Technology (USA)
Virident Systems (USA)
Virtium (USA)
Waitan (China)
Walton Chaintech (Taiwan)
Waris Technologies (USA)
WD (USA)
Wilk Electronik (Goodram) (Poland)
Wintec Industries (USA)
X-ES (USA)
Zadak (Taiwan)
Zalman Tech (Korea)
Zotac (Hong Kong)