release or is otherwise written in a promotional tone . please help by either rewriting this article from a neutral point of view or by moving this article to wikinews . when appropriate blatant advertising may be marked for speedy deletion with db spam . february 2015 micron technology inc. type public s & p 500 component nasdaq 100 component traded as nasdaq mu industry semiconductors founded may 22 1978 ; 38 years ago may 22 1978 headquarters boise idaho united states . area served worldwide key people mark durcan ceo products dram flash memory solid state drives revenue 16.358 billion 2014 1 operating income 3.087 billion 2014 1 profit 3.045 billion 2014 1 total assets 22.498 billion 2014 1 total equity 11.573 billion 2014 1 number of employees 30 000 2014 subsidiaries lexar media website www.micron.com micron technology inc. is an american global corporation based in boise idaho which produces many forms of semiconductor devices including dynamic random access memory flash memory and solid state drives . its consumer products are marketed under the brands crucial technology and lexar . micron and intel together created im flash technologies which produces nand flash memory . micron was named one of thomson reuters top 100 global innovators in 2012 3 and 2013 . 4 micron technology is also ranked among the top 5 semiconductor producing companies in the world . contents 1 history 1.1 1978 1999 1.2 2000 present 2 products 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit 1978 1999 edit micron was founded in boise idaho in 1978 5 by ward parkinson joe parkinson dennis wilson and doug pitman as a semiconductor design consulting company . 6 startup funding was provided by local idaho businessmen tom nicholson allen noble rudolph nelson and ron yanke . later it received funding from idaho billionaire j. r. simplot whose fortune was made in the potato business . in 1981 the company moved from consulting to manufacturing with the completion of its first wafer fabrication unit fab 1 producing 64k dram chips . in 1994 founder joe parkinson retired as ceo and steve appleton took over as chairman president and ceo . 5 a 1996 3 way merger among zeos international micron computer and micron custom manufacturing services mcms increased the size and scope of the company ; 5 this was followed rapidly with the 1997 acquisition of netframe systems in a bid to enter the mid range server industry . 2000 present edit micron and intel created a joint venture in 2005 based in im flash technologies in lehi utah . 7 this proved so successful that the two companies formed another joint venture in 2011 im flash singapore in singapore . 8 in 2012 micron became sole owner of this second joint venture . 9 the company again changed leadership in june 2007 with coo mark durcan becoming president . in 2008 micron spun off aptina imaging which is currently a privately held company . micron retained a stake in the spinoff . 10 however the core company suffered setbacks requiring layoffs of 15 percent of its workforce in october 2008 during which period the company also announced the purchase of qimonda s stake in inotera technologies for 400 million . 2009 saw this trend of layoffs and acquisitions continue with the termination of an additional 2 000 employees and the acquisition of the flcos microdisplay company displaytech . with the company s increasing fortunes micron was able to acquire agreed to buy flash chip maker numonyx for issuance of 1.27 billion in stock . on february 3 2012 the ceo steve appleton died in a small lancair plane crash in boise idaho . 11 12 13 mark durcan replaced appleton as the ceo shortly thereafter 14 eliminating his former title of president . 15 in the 2012 2014 period micron again went through an acquisition layoff cycle becoming the majority shareholder of inotera memories purchasing elpida memory and powerchip . 16 while announcing plans to layoff approximately 3 000 workers . 17 in 2015 micron and intel embarked on another joint venture 3d xpoint non volatile memory . 18 micron also acquired tidal systems . 19 products edit micron makes dram memory components and modules including sdram ddr sdram ddr2 sdram ddr3 sdram ddr4 sdram lpdram rldram psram and multi chip packages . it also makes nand managed nand and nor flash memory and ssds . lexar and crucial are some of the most popular brands the company uses to distribute its products . in late 2009 the company was the first to announce a solid state drive ssd using a 6 gbit s sata interface . 20 see also edit im flash technologies im flash singapore list of companies based in idaho list of semiconductor fabrication plants references edit a b c d e micron technology form 10 k annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15 d of the securities exchange act of 1934 for the fiscal year ended august 28 2014 securities and exchange commission mu nasdaq gs stock quote micron technology inc english top 100 global innovators 2012 . thompson reuters . 2012 12 04 . retrieved 2012 04 16 . top 100 global innovators 2013 . thompson reuters . 2013 11 01 . retrieved 2013 11 01 . a b c micron company milestones . micron . retrieved 2012 06 07 . allan roy a. 2001 . a history of the personal computer the people and the technology . allan publishing . p. 16 . isbn 0 9689108 0 7 . retrieved 2011 06 20 . intel micron to form flash chip venture dead link intel micron open singapore nand flash plant im flash singapore is now micron aptina boosts image ; embraces foundries eetimes 4 12 2011 micron says ceo steve appleton has died in a boise plane crash the washington post february 3 2012 . statement by micron technology board of directors micron technology february 3 2012 . micron tech ceo dies in plane accident shara tibken don clark the wall street journal february 3 2012 . http www.micron.com about company info leadership d mark durcan https www.micron.com about our company leadership d mark durcan micron and elpida announce sponsor agreement micron may shut israel plant by 2015 hruska joel 29 july 2015 . intel micron reveal xpoint a new memory architecture that could outclass ddr4 and nand . extremetech . ramseyer chris october 2 2015 . micron gains ssd controller technology through tidal systems aquisition sic . tom s hardware . retrieved october 10 2015 . ng jansen 2009 12 02 . micron announces world s first native 6gbps sata solid state drive . dailytech . retrieved 2009 12 02 . external links edit official website . micron cpg partner portal . lexar a world leader in reliable award winning memory solutions . subsidiary of micron technology inc. ram memory upgrade dell mac apple hp compaq . usb drives ssd at crucial.com consumer sales for micron memory im flash an intel micron venture elpida memory inc. elpida memory inc. was acquired by micron technology inc. on july 31 2013 and is going to be unified as micron memory japan . rexchip electronics corporation ; dram ; dynamic random access memory now micron memory taiwan . v t e solid state drives key terminology encryption ecc flash file system flash memory slc mlc flash memory controller garbage collection iops mb s memory wear open channel ssd over provisioning read disturb secure erase solid state storage trim command wear leveling write amplification flash manufacturers im flash technologies micron samsung sk hynix joint venture between sandisk and toshiba controllers independent greenliant systems indilinx now part of toshiba ocz jmicron marvell phison pmc sierra sandforce now part of seagate smi captive fusion io hgst stec intel micron samsung seagate toshiba ocz ssd manufacturers list of solid state drive manufacturers interfaces advanced host controller interface ahci fibre channel fc nvm express nvme pci express pcie sata express serial ata sata serial attached scsi sas universal serial bus usb configurations hdd form factors msata m. 2 pci express expansion card thunderbolt mini displayport usb type c u. 2 related organizations incits jedec jc 42 jc 64.8 onfi nvmhci work group usb if sata io sff committee snia sssi t10 scsi t11 fc t13 ata category v t e major information technology companies largest it companies largest internet companies largest software companies semiconductor sales leaders by year consulting and outsourcing accenture atos booz allen hamilton bt global services caci capgemini cgi group cognizant computer sciences corporation deloitte digital china fujitsu hcl technologies hitachi consulting hewlett packard enterprise services ibm global services indra sistemas infosys kpmg leidos nec ntt data orange business services t systems tata consultancy services tech mahindra unisys wipro imaging canon inc. hp inc. eastman kodak fujifilm konica minolta kyocera lexmark nikon olympus corporation panasonic ricoh samsung electronics seiko epson sharp sony toshiba xerox information storage adata dell technologies dell emc fujitsu hitachi data systems hewlett packard enterprise ibm kingston technology lenovoemc netapp oracle corporation plextor samsung electronics sandisk seagate technology silicon power sony toshiba transcend information western digital internet aol baidu facebook google iac interactivecorp microsoft naver netease netflix tencent twitter yahoo yandex cloud computing amazon web services google ibm microsoft oracle corporation rackspace salesforce.com e commerce only alibaba group amazon.com ebay groupon jd.com rakuten mainframes fujitsu ibm mobile devices acer inc. amazon.com apple asus bbk electronics oppo vivo blackberry limited hisense htc huawei i mobile karbonn mobiles lava mobiles lenovo motorola mobility lg electronics meizu micromax mobile microsoft nokia panasonic samsung sony tcl corporation true xiaomi zte networking equipment avaya cisco systems ericsson fujitsu hewlett packard enterprise huawei juniper networks motorola solutions nec nokia qualcomm zte oems celestica compal electronics flextronics foxconn jabil circuit pegatron quanta sanmina corporation tpv technology wistron corporation personal computers and servers acer inc. apple inc. asus dell fujitsu hp inc. lenovo lg electronics nec panasonic samsung electronics toshiba servers only cisco systems hewlett packard enterprise inspur oracle corporation point of sale casio ncr panasonic samsung electronics seiko epson sharp star micronics toshiba wincor nixdorf semiconductors advanced micro devices broadcom freescale semiconductor fujitsu infineon technologies integrated micro electronics inc. intel lg electronics marvell technology group mediatek micron technology nvidia nxp semiconductors on semiconductor panasonic qualcomm renesas electronics samsung electronics sk hynix sony stmicroelectronics texas instruments toshiba via technologies foundries globalfoundries tsmc united microelectronics corporation smic equipment lam research software adobe systems apple inc. ca technologies google hewlett packard enterprise ibm intuit microsoft oracle corporation sap se symantec vmware telecommunications services bharti airtel am rica m vil at & t bell canada bharat sanchar nigam limited bt group centurylink china mobile china telecom china unicom comcast deutsche telekom hutchison asia telecommunications idea cellular kddi kpn kt corporation mahanagar telephone nigam mtn mts nippon telegraph and telephone ntt docomo oi orange s.a. reliance communications sk telecom softbank mobile sprint corporation tata teleservices telecom italia telef nica telenor true verizon communications vimpelcom vivendi vodafone methodology fy2014 15 applicable revenues of over group 1 3 6 12 us 3 billion ; group 4 us 2 billion ; group 5 us 1 billion ; group 13 us 20 billion v t e companies of the nasdaq 100 index 21st century fox activision blizzard adobe systems akamai technologies alexion pharmaceuticals alphabet amazon.com american airlines group amgen analog devices apple applied materials autodesk automatic data processing baidu bed bath & beyond biogen biomarin pharmaceutical broadcom limited ca technologies celgene cerner charter communications check point cisco systems citrix systems cognizant comcast costco csx ctrip.com international discovery communications dish network dollar tree ebay electronic arts endo international expedia express scripts facebook fastenal fiserv gilead sciences henry schein illumina incyte intel intuit intuitive surgical jd.com kraft heinz lam research liberty braves liberty global liberty interactive liberty media linear technology marriott international mattel maxim integrated products micron technology microsoft mondelez international monster beverage mylan netapp netflix norwegian cruise line holdings nvidia nxp semiconductors o reilly automotive paccar paychex paypal qualcomm