SK Hynix today (June 20) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire California-based Link_A_Media Devices (LAMD), a developer of memory-chip controllers.

LAMD will join SK Hynix as a business unit focused on customized NAND based solutions, the chipmaker said.

In a statement, SK Hynix pointed out that the NAND flash market has been evolving from raw NAND memory solutions for USB and memory cards to value-added products equipped with controllers, as various mobile applications such as smartphones and tablet PCs are being rapidly adopted and cloud computing grows in popularity. The role of NAND controllers in premium products such as eMMC and SSD devices has become increasingly important to meet the required high memory densities and improved interface speeds, the firm added.

"We expect our NAND flash competitiveness will be further strengthened by the acquisition of LAMD which has extensive expertise in controller technology and excellent engineering resources," said Oh Chul Kwon, president and CEO of SK Hynix.

Founded in 2004, LAMD develops semiconductor system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for the data storage market. These SoC solutions, also called controllers, interface with processors to significantly increase the speed and reliability of flash memory.