Silicon Motion Technology, a developer of NAND flash device controllers, has obtained orders for SSDs from Intel, SanDisk and Micron Technology, according to industry sources. New orders are expected to boost significantly Silicon Motion's overall shipments of SSD controllers in 2015.

Silicon Motion shipped about 500,000 SSD controllers monthly during the second half of 2014. With the new orders, as well as orders from memory module firms and distributors such as Transcend Information, Lite-On Technology and Tigo, Silicon Motion's SSD controller shipments are set to reach one million units monthly in 2015, the sources said.

Fellow flash device controller supplier Phison Electronics, which is already an SSD controller development partner of Toshiba, is likely to enter the supply chain of Kingston Technology with its SSD controller chips, the sources indicated.

Kingston previously sourced SSD controllers from LSI, whose flash storage assets were sold to Seagate. Seagate's acquisition of LSI's flash business in the third quarter of 2014 has prompted customers of LSI like Kingston to diversify their controller suppliers, the sources noted.

In other news, NAND device controller suppliers are gearing up to get ready for the growing market of PCIe SSDs in 2015. PCIe SSDs are expected to account for 20-30% of all SSDs set for launch during 2015, and the proportion will likely exceed 50% in 2016 enabling the interface to become mainstream, the sources said.