Start-Up’s Profile: Solidigm

Company:
Solidigm, pronounced [saa-luh-dime], name said to “reflect a new paradigm in solid-state storage“

HQs:
San Jose, CA

Date founded:
December 30, 2021

Following:
Acquisition of Intel by SK hynix for $9 billion on October 2020; a second phase of the transaction is expected to occur in or after March 2025, during which SK hynix will acquire remaining assets from Intel, including IP related to the manufacture and design of NAND flash wafers, R&D employees for NAND flash wafers, the Dalian, China, fab workforce, and the other associated tangible/intangible assets.

Revenue:
Already $ one billion company

Main executives:

• CEO: (Rob) B. Crooke worked for Intel for 32 years where he led the WW organization responsible for NVM technology design and development, complete SSD system hardware and firmware development, and wafer and SSD manufacturing, as well as marketing for Intel’s component, module, and SSD NVM businesses. Before coming to Intel, he held design engineering positions at Alliant Computer Systems and Custom Silicon.
• COB: Lee Seok-hee, president and co-CEO, who will lead the post-merger integration processes.

≠ of employees:
Total of 2,000

Located in:
20 sites around the world

SSD products:

• For data centers
  SSD D3 series: formerly manufactured by Intel, 2.5-inch SATA SSDs with TLC NAND, 480GB to 7.68TB
  SSD D5 series: formerly manufactured by Intel, 960GB to 30.72TB
  SSD D7 series: with TLC 3D NAND f, U.2 form factor, PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe, 3.84 and 7.68TB; PCIe 3.1 x4 NVMe, U.2 form factor, 1.6 to 7.68TB; PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe, 1 to 15.36TB; PCe 3.1 x4 NVMe, M.2 form factor, E1.L form factor
• For clients
  660p and 670p series: PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe in M.2 form factor, 512GB to 2TB with QLC NAND

Market:

Roadmap:
PCIe Gen 4 for enterprise drives this year and Gen 5 probably starting in 2023 and in production in 2024 The company will expand to 144 layers to essentially all of its products by the end of calendar 2022.