SK Hynix Inc. announced it established a research and development (or 'R&D') center 'SK Hynix Flash Solutions Taiwan Ltd.'. The Company will strengthen global R&D competence and customer support by adding the R&D center in Taiwan.

The Taiwan R&D center will focus on intensifying its competence in development of high value added NAND Flash memory products. The center is located in Hsinchu, the hub of Taiwan IT industry, so it is expected to become a base of the technology support for Chinese and Taiwanese clients.

A massive fire broke out this afternoon (local time), at a SK Hynix production facility in Wuxi, China. At this moment, pictures and videos of the fire are swarming through local social networks, and there are no official announcements by either the local authorities, or the company itself. Incidentally, this isn't the first fire accident at an SK Hynix manufacturing facility, a Korea-based fab suffered one in February 2008. The facility hit by fire is rumored to be one that handles packaging (placing bumped dies inside ceramic or plastic shells, and labeling them). If the extant of damage to the facility is high, it might affect NAND flash prices more than DRAM, since the company recently prioritized NAND flash over DRAM for the facility.