Firm goes forward with first reshuffling move following SK takeover


Hynix Semiconductor said Monday that it introduced smart mobile solution products at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for the first time in partnership with its new owner SK Telecom.

With a theme of “Hynix enabling a ubiquitous world,” the global top memory chipmaker features mobile solutions like 20 nanometer class 4 gigabit DDR3 dynamic random access memory and 30 nanometer class 4 gigabit LPDDR3 DRAM, said Hynix officials. The two items are customized for wireless gadgets such as high-end smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks.

In specific, the 20 nanometer class 4 gigabit DDR3 DRAM, which saves over 40 percent in power consumption compared to the previous 30 nanometer models, targets high density application ― high-end virtualized servers, tablet PCs and ultrabooks.

Hynix plans to start volume production of the new 20 nanometer class DRAM in the first half of this year, its officials said.

The 30 nanometer class 4 gigabit LPDDR3 DRAM, used in smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks, offers high-speed operation that shows up to 50 percent of improvement, they added.

“Hynix has a variety of mobile products which satisfy requirement of high density, high performance and low power consumption,” said Kim Ji-bum, chief marketing officer at Hynix. “The company is able to provide competitive solutions to the mobile application market.”

Hynix’s participation in the world’s biggest mobile trade show is seen as a move to expand its business scope to the smart mobile solution market as it was acquired by SK Telecom, the country’s top mobile carrier.

The company is currently headed by two chief executives ― SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won and its previous CEO Kwon Oh-chul.

In the meantime, Hynix went through its first reshuffling process shortly after its takeover was concluded earlier this month.

The firm newly established two organizations reporting directly to the CEO ― SK Management System and future visionary teams ― and 14 SK officials who took part in the Hynix takeover process was dispatched to the new teams.

The SK management system team is responsible for embedding the SK culture within Hynix and the future visionary team will draft long-term visions for the chipmaker.

On top of the new teams, the company has been put under three different general management divisions from a one whole general management system, said a company official.

“In a bid to strengthen and specify the responsibility of each function, we have reorganized it into three different divisions, which are research development, general manufacturing and corporation center management,” the official said.

While its executive vice president Park Sung-wook, who was in charge of research development and manufacturing, spearheads research and development organization, two SK officials ― Park Sang-hoon, president of SK Biopharmaceuticals and Kim Joon-ho of SK Telecom ― will be seated as the heads of manufacturing and the corporate center, respectively.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)