The development of the global storage industry has been in full swing in recent years. The storage controller industry is also one of the cores of the storage industry. It is an essential and important industrial chain node.
After 2017, after a significant increase in the average sales unit price, CINNO Research expects that the DRAM industry will continue to grow in demand for servers, smart phones and mining machines in 2018, and the overall DRAM supply will remain tight, with average sales. The unit price continues to rise, and is expected to increase the DRAM market output by another 30%; while NAND flash memory continues to prosper with solid-state drives, and the increase in the supply of 3D NAND flash memory will allow the flash NAND market output to grow by about 20%.
The huge productivity and output value of NAND Flash and DRAM have attracted most of the attention of the industry. However, the storage media chip is basically controlled by Samsung, Intel/Micron, Toshiba/Western Digital and Hynix. Although the Ziguang Group spent tens of billions of dollars in funding to attack technology and purchase the company, it instead focused on strengthening its own development technology. The future outcome is still unknown. According to industry commentary, as time goes by, the interest and depreciation pressure on large capital investment, and the pressure of domestic investors eager to “effectivelyâ€, Ziguang has recognized the technology accumulation and the pressure of the current market, and instead seeks shipments from the Intel Dalian factory. With support, the wafers produced by the plant will be pave the market through violet encapsulation to reach the initial stage.
Memory control chip is an indispensable key IC in the industry
Yang Wende, deputy general manager of CINNO Research, said that the memory industry has little to do with the Taiwanese IC design industry. If it is related, it is also related to foundries and packaging factories such as TSMC and UMC. Taiwan’s real participation and role-playing are storage controller manufacturers. These Fabless (Fabless Companies) are Taiwan’s semiconductor industry’s storage industry. The industry has a certain right to speak.
However, memory chips have huge sales and industry influence, but they must be combined with memory controller chips in industrial applications to be able to form the final product (as shown in Figure 1). That is, the memory controller chips are indispensable IC. For example, the current solid-state drive (SSD) is the main target of the flash target market, and the SSD needs a controller and a flash memory chip to form a target product. In addition, the EMMC chip inside the smart phone is a controller chip and a flash memory chip. MCP (Multi-Chip Package) package.
Figure 1: Memory and Controller Chips
Source: CINNO Research, 2018/05
Global memory controller chips can be classified into the following categories: hard disk (HDD) controllers, memory card controllers, UFD controllers, SSD controllers, Bridge controllers, and high-level controllers.
Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Controller - Mature and stable traditional memory media
Normally used Hard Disk Drive (HDD), controller chips need to accurately control the disk read and write, the current global almost Marvell exclusive monopoly, fortunately, SSD development alternative HDD, so follow-up no more companies to enter the field to compete for late, so in The field of hard disk controller chips belongs to the exclusive situation of the American Marvell family.
Memory Card Controller Chip - Mainstream Storage Media for Consumer Electronics
Mainly in CF/SD/MMC/UFS interface, the main form is SD card (including TF card and Micro SD card) and embedded application of eMMC and UFS chip, used in digital cameras and smart phones and other fields. SanDisk, the former leader in the field, has been included in Western Digital, while Samsung and Toshiba have produced their own controllers and cards (including the eMMC/UFS module). This aspect has not competed with a single controller. Such controller chips that can be purchased in the current market are concentrated in Hui Rong (SMI). The German company Hysperstone has a long history and its CF controller still occupies a certain share in industrial applications. The domestic Shenzhen silicon grid has SD controllers, relying on the card production capacity of Longbo. In addition, the silicon grid will also merge in the near future and Ding Technology will set up a microelectronics for more types of flash controller chip layout; Huasheng Microelectronics (SageMicro) is focused on the information security encryption market, and industrial-grade CF controllers are only seen in the market. It can be seen that the dominant power of such chips is still basically in the hands of Taiwanese companies.
UFD controller chip - past PC heterodyne storage device, encrypted information security into a new blue ocean
The USB interface controller chip is mainly used in USB Flash Drive. The mainstay of such chips is still Taiwanese companies, with SMI and Phison taking the lead. There are two companies that once held a considerable market share in this sector, namely Taiwan's Alcor Micro and Shenzhen Chipsbank, which have now lost market share. In particular, the core domestic market share of the original state once lead, due to the serious loss of market conditions in the USB2.0 upgrade to USB3.0 process, so that the core state is no longer a competitive product, in addition to the domestic Suzhou Guoxin, Huayu Microelectronics has such products, but it has no consumer market competitiveness and is limited to information security UFD applications.
SSD Controller Chip - The Future Star of Future New Generation Memory
Its market competition pattern is getting closer and closer to the memory card controller chip. On the one hand, international giants such as Samsung, Micron, and Toshiba have developed their own, while Seagate and Western Digital have acquired SandForce and SanDisk, respectively. These international predators use flash memory resources as the basis to determine the performance of SSDs. The reliability of the controller is in the hands, achieving a considerable amount of controller chip consumption.
On the other hand, companies entering the global SSD controller market have gradually completed the process of survival of the fittest and eclectic integration.
Taiwan's Hui Rong (SMI) still occupies the leading position in this field, and Phison is not far behind the support of Toshiba. Although the United States Marvel has the advantage of HDD controllers, it has repeatedly lost ground in SSDs and gradually lost power.
Historically, Taiwan’s JMicron, led by JM605 and other models, reorganized the company in the previous year, and withdrew from the SSD controller business. The team of intellectually differentiated teams was established in the country and Maxio is still working hard. . The joint venture has investment from Hai Kang Group.
The earliest domestic SSD controller design was Hua Weiwei. In 2013, there was a SATA-2 controller listed, which had a certain share of market share and was relatively rare domestic chips that entered the international market to fight.
In addition, Shanghai Shannon and later MemBlaze/StarBlaze and ShanghaiBao have performed well in the enterprise market and were acquired by SMI. The latter two are also focused on the enterprise market. In the high-end SSD design, the exposure in the industry is quite intensive.
Huawei Hass has its own SSD controller chip, which is mainly used to supply Huawei's internal server products. Huawei has not yet seen sales of Huawei controllers on the market. It is reported that the performance is good.
Because the SSD controller design involves high-level analog circuit design, complex interface protocols, and various flash memory algorithm technologies, there is a need for a technology-precipitating team to be able to accomplish. This is far from the fact that some domestic small companies are vigorous but spurious for financing.
Bridge Controller - Essential for Mobile Storage Devices
The reason for the inclusion of memory controllers is that mobile storage devices such as mobile video discs and mobile optical drives are based on this chip. The small storage server also directly drives a series of HDD/SSD implementations using the bridge chip on the motherboard. At present, the leading company in this area is ASMedia, behind which is the support of the big brand Asustek Computer. Its chip in the computer motherboard bridge has a strong market base; the second is JMicron, and the third is In China, Hua Weiwei reached an agreement to acquire initio's bridging chip product line product IP and customer resource revenues in 2015 and maintained its third position. Since then VIA has also entered the competition and is working hard.
Server/Data Center Storage High-Level Controllers - Key Components of Tall Storage Devices
Mainly refers to the application in the field of Server or big data (cloud) storage. Such chips generally need to exceed the speed performance of a single hard disk architecture, such as RAID functionality. The current hot topics NVMe technology is also focused on high-end applications, further JEDEC standards ongoing NVDIMM technology, trying to merge flash memory and DRAM to create a new path.
Unfortunately, this area is dominated by U.S. companies. The focus of Taiwanese companies is to focus on the applications and technologies surrounding PCs, so this is a little unfamiliar to them. It may also be due to the narrowness of the market in Taiwan and the big data system. Cast space.
At the same time, this field is derived from the new structure of fiber-memory controllers and Ethernet-storage controllers. Basically, the technical foundation of the communications network is covered here. The U.S. companies are in a position to focus on this. PMC and LSI, as well as Texas Instrument and Marvell, are mostly based on the high-speed chip development of the communications industry. These companies have undergone industrial changes. MicroChip recently acquired Microsemi. Microsemi bought PMC; LSI sold it to Avago and sold it to Seagate. High-end storage servers and array control chips are under the control of several of these companies. Taiwan basically does not set foot in this area, but domestically it has a more extensive layout. After all, China has fiber optic systems, switch systems, and big data cloud storage. Based on the industry foundation, Huawei's SSD controller does not actually focus on outsourcing or for storage systems, including its array chips. Huawei is therefore a leader in this area.
In general, the current controller manufacturers can be said to be divided into two camps, the first camp is the international first-line manufacturers that have more or less flash resources, with Samsung as the most typical representative. Another big camp is the independent fabless chip design company, represented by Taiwan's Huirong. As can be seen from the table below (Table 1), in addition to the first-line flash memory and controller directly into the implementation of the product manufacturers, the market can choose the controller chip is mainly based in Taiwan companies, especially Hui Rong, Xiang Shuo and Qunxun are the main team. Of course, Group Connect can be regarded as a company that has a certain amount of background support for flash resources. It does not rely solely on controller chips to be competitive.
From the perspective of domestic companies, with the Ziguang Group's investment in the storage industry is booming, the entire domestic storage industry really lit up, so controller manufacturers have emerged a lot. After a year or two of market trials, many companies have been short-lived, mainly because of weak technology accumulation, and even some companies relying solely on the concept of speculation. However, this does not mean that domestic enterprises without real materials, such as Huawei, it is difficult for Taiwanese companies to shake, and the domestic market is relatively closed, and the competition is not the same. Although Huaye Microelectronics Co., Ltd. was founded only for seven or eight years, it is very different from other domestic chip companies in its overwhelming publicity style. It has steadily taken a firm step in the market of SSD controller chips and bridge chips. It has become a backdrop that domestic chips have become extremely dependent on imports. The only domestic memory controller crystal makers can compete in the international market. In addition, even though the company had landed shortly after landing, it also restarted quickly and has seen its new chips begin shipping. Taking into account the fact that Lien Chan is out of Zhimei and familiar with the ecology of Taiwan, it may have strong competitiveness for Taiwanese companies.
China's storage controller chip industry is in no hurry
Recently, Trump has given China a blow to ZTE, and it also represents a road that must be accelerated for localization policies in the supply chain of science and technology industries. Because of its huge market value, the flash memory chips are valued by the purple-dominated national team. However, it is not the flash memory chips but the controller chips that determine the performance of the end product and the information security that the country values. Therefore, sooner or later, the key value of the controller chip in the industry chain will cause relevant policy makers to pay attention.
We believe that in the chaotic international political and economic situation and industrial competition, it will be able to bring more adjustment opportunities to industrial companies, and China will strongly develop the overall supply chain development driven by the storage industry, especially in the storage controller industry. Even for domestic manufacturers to meet a rare opportunity in a hundred years, the dynamics of various manufacturers deserve continuous attention.
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