Major PC brands like Acer and HP typically use other companies to produce memory and storage products. One such supplier, Biwin, plans to take on the likes of Kingston, Seagate, and others as a first-party consumer brand for SSDs, memory, and USB flash drives. The company will showcase its upcoming retail products at Computex 2024 in June.
Biwin has long manufactured consumer NAND flash and DRAM products for HP and Acer, among others. It also provides legacy NVMe and SATA SSD options, including a line of Lenovo-branded PCIe 4.0 drives. While Biwin has never marketed its products directly to consumers, it hasn’t been secretive about its plans to enter the retail market.
Based in Shenzhen, China, Biwin is traded publicly on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. It will continue to serve as an OEM for HP, Acer, and others, but it also wants to expand its operations further. Biwin was one of the first companies to use YMTC’s 232-layer TLC flash memory and Maxiotek’s controllers to make the most of the PCIe 4.0 interface. While Acer's branded drives did gain some traction, Biwin apparently wants a larger piece of the retail market.
Biwin appears set to demo a variety of products at Computex, including DDR5 memory modules and NVMe M.2 SSD options. We've seen such parts from Biwin's partners in the past, so taking similar designs to retail would make sense. Unlike product shots we’ve seen with other brands’ logos, the images displayed on the Computex website for 2024 are Biwin-branded.
Biwin produces DRAM modules that are highly sought-after by gamers, content creators, and overclocking enthusiasts. The company will show off its Black Opal DW100 and DX100 DDR5 memory modules. These modules not only support overclocking and aluminum heatsinks, but they also integrate with RGB lighting software from major motherboard manufacturers.
Attendees will also see the new Black Opal NV7400 PCIe 4.0 SSD product. This storage device offers read speeds of up to 7400 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6500 MB/s. It also offers RGB lighting controllable by major motherboard manufacturers’ lighting synchronization software. Internally, we expect it will leverage the Maxio MAP1602 controller and YMTC NAND, though we'll have to wait for final confirmation.
It’s encouraging to see Biwin stepping into the consumer market, as its products have earned high accolades for other computer manufacturers. We always welcome more competition in the memory and storage markets, and look forward to seeing the final retail parts once they launch.
