Storage maker Western Digital is getting into the solid-state drive (SSD) business, announcing today that it has bought up California SSD supplier SiliconSystems for some $65 million in cash. SiliconSystems has primarily been selling solid-state drives to makers of embedded systems used in industry, the military, aerospace, and medical markets, along with SSD devices used in networking and communications gear. The deal makes Western Digital one of the last big storage vendors to get into flash-based SSD technologies—and the fact that it’s doing so through an acquisition may indicate the company hasn’t been working on the technology in-house.
