Digitimes is reporting that chip maker Hynix has steadily increased its production of 41nm and 48nm flash throughout 2009 in response to shortage fears for 2010.
Though the firm had early trouble improving yields in 40-class nodes, Hynix has doubled its supply in 2H09 as compared to 1H09. Sources report that the sharp increase in NAND availability should be enough to recapture the business of downstream suppliers who turned to Samsung in the face of Hynix’s flash shortage.
The increase in factory throughput is also good for Taiwanese makers of flash-based devices, as the Hynix shortage combined with Samsung’s reallocation of resources to its branded business had stoked shortage fears.
However, Digitimes’ report does not mention that the 41/48nm process node is old hat in the land of NAND. The Intel-Micron team is already shipping devices with 34nm NAND, while the Toshiba-SanDisk team is expected to ship 32nm devices in the new year. These newer generations of flash ICs will drive the hot SSDs in 2010, meaning consumers won’t see much benefit on the bottom line from Hynix getting its act together.
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