marvell

Likewise, that Marvell controller that Google might use on their Google-brand SSDs is going to run Marvell's standard firmware with maybe a few changes per Google's request.

Intel used to have an ARM license but they sold it to Marvell just as the iPhone came out.

The article above states (or assumes?) that Intel sold off XScale to Marvell when the iPhone ship sailed without them.

Google is believed to assemble its SSDs, supposedly from Intel/Micron flash memory and Marvell controllers.

Didn't Intel sell the ARM division to Marvell or something?

In my experience, Marvell is one of the worst to work with but their fabricators make a lot of grey market copies of Marvel's chips during off hours.

Phillips County, Ark., home of Marvell Academy.

If you can find a reliable source (fabricator who makes chips for Marvell during the day and grey market copies during the graveyard shift), it will usually be pretty reliable.

It's telling that many of the open source projects like PandaBoard, BeagleBoard, or OpenRD were originally made as reference designs by companies like Texas Instruments and Marvell or as otherwise well funded initiatives like the RaspberryPi.

However, unless there is an extreme deadline or a manufacturer I loath dealing with (cough Marvell cough) the final boards sent to the client are made with manufacturer sourced parts, for which I have to start the procurement process the second I get the contract.

Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" and Donne's "The Ecstasy" are both classic love poems.

If you make an SSD, you buy flash from Micron and a controller form Marvell, etc.

It's something from Marvell, but I've never seen a part number.

Winning in the SSD market seems to require making your own controller and/or flash, and there's only one good source for buying a good high-performance controller on the open market (Marvell).