SK hynix Inc. is a South Korean memory semiconductor supplier of dynamic random-access memory chips and flash memory chips. Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker and the world's 3rd-largest semiconductor company. Founded as Hyundai Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd. in 1983 and known as Hyundai Electronics, the company has manufacturing sites in Korea, the United States, China and Taiwan. In 2012, when SK Telecom became its major shareholder, Hynix merged to SK Group. Hynix memory is used by Apple in some of their iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. Apple's A9 chipset is onboard together with an SK hynix RAM module believed to be "likely the same 2 GB LPDDR4 mobile DRAM found in the iPhone 6s". Hynix memory is also used by Asus in their Google-branded Nexus 7 tablet, an OEM provider for IBM System x servers, and is used in desktop PCs and laptops as well as the Asus Eee PC, Dell, HP Inc., and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have also used Hynix memory as OEM equipment. Other products that use Hynix memory include DVD players, cellular phones, set-top boxes, personal digital assistants, networking equipment, and hard disk drives. In May 2020, SK Hynix became the first Korean semiconductor company to share its sensitive technical data with a research institute - Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in real time through the cloud to further enhance its R&D process.
History
1983 Founded as Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.
1985 Started mass production of 256K DRAM
1986 The Hyundai-manufactured Blue Chip PC was sold in discount and toy stores throughout the US. It is one of the earliest PC clones marketed toward consumers instead of business.
2001 Changed the company name to Hynix Semiconductor Inc. ; spun off Hyundai Syscomm, Hyundai CuriTel, and Hyundai Networks; completed spin-off from Hyundai Group
2002 Sold HYDIS, TFT-LCD Business Unit
2004 Signed System IC Business Transfer Agreement with System Semiconductor
2006 Posted record the highest revenues since foundation
Established global manufacturing network with complete construction of Hynix-ST Semiconductor Inc. Hynix's wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary in China
2007 Appointed Jong-Kap Kim as the new chairman & CEO
2009 Company put up for sale by its lenders after it defaulted on loans and a subsequent debt-equity swap
2010 Fine of €51.47 million for illegally fixing prices with eight other memory chip makers. In January 2010, Hynix Semiconductor Inc was put up for sale in an auction valued at close to $3 billion. On 31 August 2010, HP announced collaboration with Hynix to bring memristor to high volume manufacturing step.
2012 SK Group, the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea, acquired a 21.05% stake in Hynix.
2013 Fab 1 and Fab 2 in China both suffered a massive fire which took the factories offline temporarily.
2014 SK hynix acquired the firmware division of Softeq Development FLLC to make it a part of its global R&D network alongside Italy-based Ideaflash S.r.l, Link_A_Media Devices and Violin Memory in the US, and Taiwanese Innostor Technology.
Products
Hynix produces a variety of semiconductor memories, such as:
