SK Hynix Recruits Korean Chip Designer ASICLAND for Next-Gen Enterprise SSD Controllers

IT-NEWS, June 29 — Korean chip design house ASICLAND has signed a development contract with SK Hynix for next-generation enterprise SSD controllers. The deal covers ASIC design and tape-out support, with manufacturing planned on TSMC’s advanced process nodes.

The contract is valued at roughly 31.9 billion KRW (about $25 million USD) and runs from May 2025 through December 2027. That timeline suggests SK Hynix’s next wave of enterprise SSDs is still a few years out.

ASICLAND holds an unusual position in the semiconductor ecosystem. It’s the only Korean company in TSMC’s Value Chain Aggregation alliance, a select group of design-service partners with early access to TSMC’s manufacturing roadmap. Its capabilities span from 250nm legacy nodes down to 3nm, giving it the flexibility to match different controller designs with the right process technology.

Enterprise SSD performance has become a growing bottleneck as AI training clusters and inference servers move petabytes of data through storage systems. A faster, more efficient controller paired with SK Hynix’s own NAND and DRAM could translate into meaningful throughput and power gains for hyperscale cloud operators.