Supplier Spotlight: Silicon Motion | Symmetry Blog

Each week, we'll be showcasing one of our suppliers from our line card and what distinguishes them from the competition. This week's supplier is Silicon Motion, a global leader and pioneer in developing NAND flash controller ICs for solid-state storage devices and specialty RF ICs for mobile devices.

Who is Silicon Motion?

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NasdaqGS: SIMO) is a global leader and pioneer in developing microcontroller ICs for NAND flash storage devices and specialty RF ICs for mobile devices.

Silicon Motion products are widely used in many of the leading smartphones and other mobile devices in the market today. More NAND flash products, especially next generation flash, whether produced by Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba, Micron, Intel or SK Hynix, are supported by Silicon Motion controllers than any other company. Silicon Motion leads the industry in supplying innovative controllers for managing the most advanced process geometry NAND flash and the latest generation TLC (3-bits per cell) flash. Silicon Motion is a leader in eMMC controllers for smartphones and tablets and in memory card and USB flash drive controllers, and increasingly they are focused on client SSD controllers for notebook PCs and other applications. Also, Silicon Motion is a dedicated provider of 4G LTE transceivers for Samsung’s smartphones and tablets and is a leading provider of mobile TV SoCs. They market their embedded storage, removable storage and embedded graphics products under the “SMI” brand, and specialty RF ICs under the “FCI” brand.

Silicon Motion was founded in 1995 in San Jose, California and is now headquartered in Taiwan, with design centers and sales offices in Taiwan, Korea, China, Japan and the US. 

What are their most popular products?

The key products are controllers used in embedded storage products such as SSDs and eMMCs, as well as in expandable storage products such as memory cards and USB flash drives. Their products are widely used in consumer devices such as smartphones, tablets and PCs and for industrial, enterprise, commercial and other applications. Customers include most of the NAND flash makers, leading technology OEMs, and the majority of storage device module makers. More NAND flash products - especially next-generation flash - produced by Intel, Micron, Samsung, SanDisk, SK Hynix and Toshiba are supported by Silicon Motion controllers than any other company.

Silicon Motion are the world's leading merchant supplier of controllers for eMMC embedded memory used in smartphones and tablets, and the leading merchant supplier of controllers for client SSDs used in PCs and other applications. Their Shannon Systems enterprise-grade PCIe SSDs are targeted at the Chinese hyperscale data center market.

For the mobile communications market, their key products are mobile TV SoCs and RFICs.

Silicon Motion markets controllers under the "SMI" brand, enterprise-grade SSDs under the "Shannon Systems" brand and mobile communications products under the "FCI" brand.

How do their products help your design?

Silicon Motion's eMMC controllers provide cost-effective and reliable solutions for eMMC embedded storage applications. eMMC is especially suitable for mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, game consoles, set-top boxes and other consumer electronics.

Silicon Motion’s eMMC controllers are designed to support the vast majority of flash components, including SLC, MLC and TLC flash manufactured by the leading NAND flash makers. As the leading merchant controller supplier, they provide low power consumption and high performance for mobile and embedded applications with advanced controller technologies and optimized hardware/firmware architecture.

See our Silicon Motion eMMC Overview page for more information.

Looking to integrate Silicon Motion products with your design? Our Applications Engineers offer free design and technical help for your latest designs. Contact us today!