IBM said that Flash was crucial for new servers and mobile products. It did not say how much it paid for the company. Texas Memory, based in Houston, Texas, has provides enterprise-grade SSDs, as well as application-specific digital signal processors. One of its main customers has been Dell.

IBM's acquisition of well-regarded Texas Memory comes six months after Intel and Micron Technology upgraded their six-year-old partnership. Texas Memory's portfolio speeds IBM's path into mobile sectors. It also will help IBM's PureSystems initiative which aims to make Big Blue gear interoperable with customers' products.

Texas Memory has a proprietary technology, Enterprise MLC flash, which is especially suitable for enterprise for use in data warehousing, content-delivery networks and other read-intensive environments. Over time, IBM plans to integrate Texas Memory products into storage, software, server and Pure Systems products,