Seoul, May 26 (IANS): US tech giant Intel Corp. continued to stand as the largest producer of corporate solid state drives (SSDs) in the first quarter, data showed on Friday, with its rival Samsung Electronics coming in second.

Data compiled by industry tracker DRAMeXchange shows Intel accounted for 40 per cent of the market, while Samsung's share stood at 25 per cent in the January-March period, Yonhap news agency reported.

An SSD is a data storage device made with a NAND flash memory chip that does not need power to store data and is more durable and faster than a hard disk drive.

While Samsung stands as the top player in the SSD market for private usage, it still falls behind the US rival in the sector for companies.

The combined shipment of the corporate SSDs was estimated at 6 million units in the first quarter -- up 3 to 4 per cent year-on-year, the data also showed.

DRAMeXchange said the demand for corporate SSD is anticipated to grow down the road as major online giants such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft provide services through data centre networks.