Behind the Build: Exploring Lexar’s 30 Years of Innovation and the Longsys Ecosystem

I have to admit that this trip to attend the Lexar Media Tour was rather eye opening from a number of different perspectives.  First of all, it was my first time visiting China and while I have been in Taiwan quite a few times, I was not ready for how different China really is. 

Some things are the same but quite a bit is different.  One of the biggest is how most everything is setup to support an international audience.  This means that most signs are in dual language and most everyone you will need to interact with does speak English.  For those that don’t speak English you will need to know a considerable amount of mandarin if you want to talk with them.

I was also extremely surprised at the delivery network, especially in Shenzhen.  Here in the states we have Amazon delivery however due to logistics, cost and location most of these deliveries are scheduled in days.  In Shenzhen I wanted to buy a Chinese Chess set and asked my Lexar friends where I could buy one.  After a quick discussion they pulled up an app on their phone and said they could get one delivered to the hotel in an hour which was significant since they didn’t know what store would even have it in stock.  By the time I got back to my room, the item was waiting at the front desk.

To wrap things up, I have been lucky enough to see first hand how computer components are built.  From computer cases that enter a factory as a flat sheet of metal only to come out the other side as a fully formed and painted product.  Everything inside is automated and largely resembles how cars are built, even to this day.  Motherboards are an amazing to see being built starting with PCB wafers being etched and bonded together to watching them get parts placed, soldered on and ultimately hand tested at the end of the process.

When it comes to memory there are to major components to consider.  First is the actual silicon which is mostly a light-based masking process used to etch traces on to a chip no larger than your fingernail.  After that you have the packaging process and is where things can diverge depending on what the finished product needs to be.  Longsys takes an innovative approach for how they build and test their products which is driven by how fast the industry changes and the distinct lack of specialized equipment for cutting edge technology.  More often than not, the technology out paces the equipment used to build it and requires that machines be adapted and reprogrammed to do what is needed. 

These adaptations are what make Longsys different and what allows Lexar to deliver innovative and stable storage solutions.