SiliconSystems makes its L.A.-O.C. move.

SiliconSystems Inc., a maker of computer memory storage devices, has outgrown Los Angeles County.

The Hawthorne-based business, founded in Michael Hajeck's San Juan Capistrano home in September 2002, is leaving for a larger space closer to Orange County's bustling technology trade.

"This has been in the playbook from Day One," said Hajeck, "So it's not like anyone who came on didn't know ultimately where the headquarters would be."

The company, which employs 12 people in a 4,000-square-foot Hawthorne building and eight engineers in Marlboro, Mass., will consolidate its entire staff in 11,000 square feet in Aliso Viejo.

"The motivation is space," Hajeck said. "And the type of individual we need to recruit is in Orange County, which is more technology based. There is the inherent skill set for the type of people we're looking for."

The company recently landed a small round of venture funding from Corona del Mar-based Miramar Venture Partners LP. Hajeck declined to say how much money Silicon Systems raised, but said last year he was looking to drum up $3 million to $5 million.

The company's product looks like a 2.5-inch disk drive. Instead of the platters and heads found in disk drives, SiliconSystems' devices are full of memory chips. (The company has no relation to Silicon Systems Inc., a Texas Instruments Inc. unit that used to be based in Tustin.)

SiliconSystems' "solid state" storage devices are designed to hold small amounts of data, sometimes in hot, cold, dusty or otherwise tough settings. They are used in medical instruments, video poker machines, electronic voting gear, corporate voice mail systems and military equipment.

SiliconSystems' customers include General Dynamics Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., CardioNet Inc. and Diebold Inc., who pay as much as $20,000 for the devices, depending on the design and use.

"There's a nice market opportunity for SiliconSystems to focus on high performance applications," said Bob Holman, a partner at Miramar Venture Partners.

The pending move will be a breath of fresh air for SiliconSystems California employees, all but two of whom already live in Orange County.

Nevertheless, the move puts another--albeit small--dent in L.A. County's manufacturing base.

The company moved to Hawthorne to take advantage of an offer by another business to share shipping, receiving, receptionists, phone systems, conference space and information technologies as an enticement for distribution rights to SiliconSystems' products.

"They incubated us," Hajeck said.

Citing industry estimates, Hajeck predicted the market for SiliconSystems' products could grow from $350 million this year to more than $1 billion by 2006.

"We expect 2006 will be the breakout year for us," he said.