Kalliba Technologies (Kalliba) was founded in 1999 as a subsidiary of AXiZ Technologies, its mandate being the local manufacture of memory modules. Kalliba has close direct links with major international memory component manufacturers including Hynix and Samsung Semiconductor.
All the memory modules produced at Kalliba's Midrand facility adhere to Intel standards. The Kalliba product range is distributed and supported by AXiZ - a major player in the distribution business. AXiZ represents such manufacturers as HP, Microsoft, Intel, LG, Symantec and 3Com amongst others. Kalliba itself is TÜV ISO 9000 certified and is a Proudly South African company. The company's initial capital expenditure was in the region of R10 million and further CAPEX investiture has allowed the company to keep pace with the rapidly changing memory technology.
Kalliba has state-of-the-art surface mount assembly equipment and the production line is fully automated. The line is scaleable and upgradeable, which allows for the manufacture of future technology products, including mTSOP, BGA and micro-BGA devices. Components are shipped directly to Kalliba from the OEMs, ensuring minimum handling and avoiding damage. Kalliba retains long-term relationships with all its suppliers and not only those providing DRAMs. Other components such as PC boards and passive components are purchased from top suppliers who it believes offer the best in terms of quality and service.
Every module that comes off the production line adheres to Intel design standards and is tested and programmed to Intel specification with a lifetime warranty being provided. The test equipment used is so comprehensive that every cell of every chip on every module is tested - so, on an 8 MB module some 64 million cells are checked. Every single piece of memory is again tested before being packaged and Kalliba boasts a virtually zero defective return rate.
The company's flagship brand is 'Kalliba' and this has, for example, become South Africa's number one USB removable flash drive, being available in capacities from 16 MB to 1 GB. The Kalliba MP3 PLUS, besides providing traditional USB flash support, also incorporates an MP3 player supporting MP3, WVA and a digital voice recorder. The memory options range from 64 MB to 256 MB. Kalliba also offers a full range of DRAM memory cards with between 72 and 200 pins covering FPM DRAM, EDO DRAM, SDRAM and DDR SDRAM. The Card Flash range includes such formats as CompactFlash, SmartMedia, MultiMedia Cards and Secure Digital Cards. During 2004, the Kalliba Velocity was launched, which features a superfast USB 2.0 data transfer between PCs, notebooks and Macintosh platforms with a USB 2.0 port. It is 10 times faster than a traditional USB 1.1 device, being ideal for larger amounts of data transfer.
Following on the Kalliba range the company later offered the 'Alpica' brand, which scaled down on small quality enhancements and the broadness of the product range in order to provide a value-for-money alternative to the market. The range of memory modules covers 168 to 200 pin SDRAM and DDR SDRAM products and these are aimed at high volume integration partners and upgrades.
The third brand in the stable is 'M3' which was launched during 2000 and is targeted at the low-cost OEM market with a limited number of modules with SDRAM and DDR SDRAM memory.
So, local memory manufacture is alive and well and Kalliba intends to keep it here through addressing its three core markets, quality, value and OEM. By the end of 2003 Kalliba had already supplied some one million memory modules and production was stepped up in 2004 to some 100 000 in the first quarter alone to meet demand. While there is still the possibility of increasing output by adding a third production shift, the company has plans in place for a second production line.
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