History
Bing Yeh and a team of engineers developed a non-volatile memory technology company called "SuperFlash" for code or data storage in electronic systems and embedded memory for integrated logic circuits.
Non-volatile memory devices retain data without a continuous supply of power. Virtually every microprocessor or microcontroller-based electronic system requires non-volatile memory to store a basic instruction set critical to the operation of the system. Prior to 1989, read-only memory (ROM), UV-light erasable PROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), and the then-emerging flash memory created a succession of increasingly useful non-volatile memory products for this purpose. However, these products lacked important features, or were too expensive, for some desirable applications.
At the 1992 Fall COMDEX show, SST introduced the world’s first single-board 30 MB 2.5” solid-state drive with standard hard-disk ATA interface and a 5 MB PC Card memory card with built-in controller and firmware. At that time, the company deemed there to be an inadequate market for the devices, and focused on the memory component business.
In 1993, SST moved to its current headquarters in Sunnyvale. That same year, SST introduced its first SuperFlash technology products, with lower costs and faster write speeds. By the end of 1995, more than 90% of the PC motherboards produced in Taiwan had adopted SST's 1 Mbit SuperFlash EEPROM product for the BIOS storage. SST went public on the NASDAQ market in November 1995.
During the next 10 years, SST introduced low- to medium density memory products and expanded their applications beyond PCs. By the end of 2006, SST and its licensees had shipped more than seven billion integrated circuits based on SuperFlash technology. SST products are now used by almost every major electronic system manufacturer and can be found in virtually every type of IT and consumer product.
In 2004, SST began an initiative to diversify beyond flash memory products, targeting consumer and industrial products with embedded solid-state data storage and RF wireless communication.
In 2010, SST was acquired by Microchip Technology, which sold several SST flash memory assets to Greenliant Systems in May that year.
Read more about this topic: Silicon Storage Technology
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