Micron Storage Executive Download

[Kay Hamling]

Therewas no press release, and no big hiring announcement. On Tuesday Micron finally announced its presence in Austin by bringing in several top-level executives to discuss new product announcements.

The Austin office - called the Micron Storage Solutions Center - is staffed with 40 people, mostly software engineers and sales representatives. It is the engineering home for a Micron storage software development team.

"We've been in stealth mode," said Darren Thomas, who is the vice president of Micron's storage unit and is a former Dell Inc. executive. Thomas said Micron plans to grow its headcount in Austin to 70.

Micron develops solid-state drives, which is a type of data storage built around flash memory that is most often used in tablets, smartphones and ultra-light laptop computers. These memory chips are typically speedier than hard drives.

Data centers are also using solid-state drives, and part of Tuesday's announcement in Austin was the introduction of a new portfolio of solid-state drives for data centers that offers improved performance.

"There is such access to phenomenal talent, especially in the software world," Thomas said, noting that some of Micron's major customers, such as IBM and Dell Inc., are within driving distance of Micron's North Austin facility.

Micron is one of the biggest memory chip makers in the world. Most of its sales come from "dynamic random access memory," or DRAM, which is used in computers but also cars, networking equipment and servers.

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