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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Memory storage |
| Founded | 1996; 29 years ago (1996) |
| Founders | John Reimer, Mike Liccardo, Paul Wenz, Petro Estakhri |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, U.S. |
| Products | SD card USB flash drives Solid-state drives Flash memory CompactFlash cards Card readers XQD |
| Parent | Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co. (2017–present) |
| Website | www |
Lexar International is a brand offlash memory products, formerly American-owned, now manufactured by the Chinese memory company,Longsys.
The Lexar "JumpDrive" trademark was often used synonymously with the termUSB flash drives when the technology was first adopted.
Lexar was founded as anAmericanmanufacturer ofdigital mediaproducts based inSan Jose, California. Products manufactured by Lexar includeSD cards,CompactFlash cards,USB flash drives, card readers andsolid-state drives.[1] Once a division ofCirrus Logic, Lexar leveraged its parent company's experience in buildingATA controllers in developing its ownflash controllers. Lexar was spun off fromCirrus Logic in 1996.[2] Lexar was created by Petro Estakhri and Mike Assar.[3]
In 2005, Lexar was awarded $380 million in a lawsuit againstToshiba who copied Lexar's flash memory technology.[3][4]
Lexar was acquired byMicron Technology in 2006,[5] and subsequently merged with Crucial Technology under the name Lexar Media, a subsidiary of Micron. In September 2007, Lexar extended its agreement withEastman Kodak Company to develop and marketKodak-brandedflash memory products worldwide.[6]
On June 26, 2017, Micron (the then-owner of the brand) announced it was to discontinue the Lexar retail removable media storage business and put part or all of the business up for sale.[7]
On August 31, 2017, the Lexar brand and trademark rights were acquired byLongsys, a flash memory company based inShenzhen, China.[8]
In 2018, Lexar reentered the flash storage market.[9]
In January 2019, the company unveiled the first SD card with a storage capacity of 1terabyte (TB).[10]
In December 2019, Lexar demonstrated a prototype 7.5 GB/s PCIe 4.0 SSD which is set to be the world's fastest consumer SSD.[11][12]
In April 2020, Lexar released its world's smallest memory card (nCARD) featuring Xtacking tech from Yangtze Memory Technology (YMTC).[13]
In June 2020, Lexar announced its entry to the DRAM market by unveiling seven different DDR4-2666 memory kits for mainstream laptops and desktops. Lexar also plans to release faster, 3000 MHz and 3200 MHz memory kits in the future, along with kits "with heatsinks and RGB lighting", targeting gamers and enthusiasts.[14]
USB FlashCard is a flash memory card format developed by Lexar, and announced on December 13, 2004.[15]
There is a wide range of existing memory card formats such asSD,xD, andCompactFlash; the major advantage of USB FlashCard is that the cards are in fact standardUSBflash drives.[16] The USB FlashCard uses a modifiedUSB Type A plug which keeps the total thickness of the card to under 4.5 mm. Because of its small size and USB compatibility, a USB FlashCard could, for example, be accessed by either a digital camera or a modernpersonal computer without the need for acard reader.
Lexar has published the specifications for its USB FlashCard form factor[16] on its website in an open and royalty-free format, in the hopes that other memory card and portable device manufacturers will adopt it.
The specifications for the USB FlashCard published by Lexar show its dimensions to be 31.75 mm × 12 mm × 4.5 mm. The volume is comparable to the widely adopted SD cards (32 mm × 24 mm × 2.1 mm). The USB FlashCard has nearly the same length as the SD card, but is half as wide, and approximately twice as thick.
Longsys [..] today announced that it has acquired the Lexar trademark and branding rights from Micron Technology, Inc.
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