Business Microscopecalypto.agranderdesign.com/pdf/InsideChips_May2005.pdf · Tessera Technologies...

Volume 6, Number 5

Business MicroscopeMay 2005

Business Microscope ..................................................................................... 1

Public Company Spotlight .............................................................................. 3

Semiconductor Stock Index ............................................................................ 3

Stock Market Scan......................................................................................... 4

Finance: News, Funding and Acquisitions ........................................................ 5

Analyzing the Analysts .................................................................................. 10

Emerging Ventures ....................................................................................... 12

Agreements and Marketing Alliances ............................................................. 20

ASICs, IP and Design Services ...................................................................... 21

The Fast Track ... People & Organizations ..................................................... 22

Companies Mentioned In This Issue ............................................................... 24in t

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ICCOPYRIGHT 2005 by HTE Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Photocopying is a federal offense. No part ofthis report may be reproduced or distributed, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, withoutwritten permission from HTE Research, Inc. InsideChips.Ventures InsideChips.Ventures InsideChips.Ventures InsideChips.Ventures InsideChips.Ventures is published 12 times a year by HTEResearch, Inc., PO Box 32237, Bellingham, WA 98228-4237. Telephone 360 676-2260. Web:www.insidechips.com, E-mail: [email protected]. Executive Editor: Steve Szirom; Associate Editor: GregFriedman. Subscription rates and a sample issue are available upon request. A sample issue and brochuremay also be downloaded from InsideChips.com'sInsideChips.com'sInsideChips.com'sInsideChips.com'sInsideChips.com's website.

InsideChips VenturesTracking Fabless, IP & Design-House StartupsTracking Fabless, IP & Design-House StartupsTracking Fabless, IP & Design-House StartupsTracking Fabless, IP & Design-House StartupsTracking Fabless, IP & Design-House Startups

TM.

Semiconductor Forecast ... Each year,InsideChips bestows a Semiconductor ForecastAward to the best analyst forecaster after actualresults are posted by the SIA. The purpose of theprogram is to identify and recognize top analystswhose methodology and experience result inconsistently accurate forecasting.

Based on forecasts made in Q4 2003, the awardfor the best semiconductor forecast made by a marketresearch firm for 2004 is shared by Bill McClean ofIC Insights and Jim Feldhan of SEMICO Research. Both analystsforecasted +27% growth for 2004, which came in very close tothe actual +28% growth over 2003 as announced by theSemiconductor Industry Association. McClean also wonInsideChips’ forecast award for his semiconductor predictionsfor 2002.

Prior to forming IC Insights, McClean worked at ICECorporation (acquired by Chipworks). He specializes in trackingglobal economic conditions, developing IC market forecasts,

analyzing capital spending and fab capacity trends,researching ASIC markets and technologies, andfollowing emerging markets for ICs such as cellularphones. Feldhan is the founder of SEMICO, one ofthe several market research boutiques that spun outof In-Stat during the 1980s. SEMICO is asemiconductor-centric market research firm whoseservices include consulting, reports, events andnewsletters.

The most conservative forecasts for 2004 were17%, 18% and 19% made by iSupply, IDC, and SIA, respectively.VLSI Research was most optimistic at 32%. The semiconductorforecasts for 2004 average 25.6%.

This year, the industry has cooled from last year’s double-digit pace. The average forecast compiled from all analysts is amodest 1.4%.

Readers can view the results of last year’s forecasts onInsideChips’ download page at www.insidechips.com/downloads.htm.

InsideChips Ventures.

May 2005

Table 1 -- Current Market Capitalization of Publicly Held Semiconductor Companies

Company Symbol Market Cap Company Symbol Market Cap Intel INTC 144,100.0 Vitesse Semiconductor VTSS 500.9 Texas Instruments TXN 41,900.0 Genesis Microchip Del GNSS 460.1 Motorola MOT 38,500.0 TriQuint Semiconductor TQNT 454.6 TSMC TSM 38,100.0 Symmetricom SYMM 437.0 STMicroelectronics STM 14,000.0 Adaptec ADPT 432.9 Analog Devices ADI 12,800.0 Trident Microsystems TRID 412.7 Maxim Integrated Products MXIM 12,400.0 O2Micro International OIIM 398.4 United Microelectronics UMC 11,400.0 Zoran ZRAN 397.8 Linear Technology LLTC 11,100.0 Audiocodes AUDC 391.5 Xilinx XLNX 10,200.0 Actel ACTL 377.8 Marvell Technology MRVL 9,200.0 Ixys SYXI 372.1 Broadcom BRCM 8,000.0 Pixelworks PXLW 368.2 Altera ALTR 7,300.0 Cirrus Logic CRUS 335.3 Infineon Technologies IFX 6,800.0 Silicon Storage Technology SSTI 318.0 National Semiconductor NSM 6,700.0 Mips Technologies MIPS 294.2 Advanced Micro Devices AMD 5,900.0 PLX Technology PLXT 275.4 Micron Technology. MU 5,900.0 Standard Microsystems SMSC 268.1 Microchip Technology MCHP 5,400.0 Echelon ELON 255.2 SanDisk SNDK 5,000.0 Integrated Silicon Solution ISSI 226.6 AtI Technologies ATYT 4,000.0 Pericom Semiconductor PSEM 216.9 Nvidia NVDA 3,800.0 Virage Logic VIRL 211.7 QLogic QLGC 3,400.0 Supertex SUPX 203.2 International Rectifier IRF 2,900.0 Sigma Designs SIGM 191.6 ARM Hldgs Plc ARMHY 2,600.0 ESS Technology ESST 184.4 Intersil ISIL 2,400.0 Monolithic Sys Technology MOSY 179.4 LSI Logic LSI 2,100.0 Zarlink Semiconductor ZL 173.1 Tessera Technologies TSRA 1,700.0 Nanogen NGEN 152.4 Vishay Intertechnology VSH 1,700.0 Transmeta Del TMTA 136.7 Cypress Semiconductor CY 1,600.0 TranSwitch TXCC 126.3 Fairchild Semiconductor FCS 1,600.0 White Electr Designs WEDC 121.5 Silicon Laboratories SLAB 1,600.0 Tower Semiconductor TSEM 109.5 PMC-Sierra PMCS 1,500.0 Sirenza Microdevices SMDI 103.9 Chartered Semiconductor CHRT 1,400.0 Aware AWRE 102.1 Integrated Circuit Sys ICST 1,400.0 Dialog Semiconductor DLGS 101.4 Rambus RMBS 1,400.0 California Micro Devices CAMD 92.8 Semtech SMTC 1,300.0 Metalink MTLK 88.8 Integrated Device Technology IDTI 1,200.0 Quicklogic QUIK 85.4 Agere Systems AGR.A 1,100.0 Hi/Fn HIFN 83.3 Sigmatel SGTL 1,100.0 Centillium Communications CTLM 81.5 Atmel ATML 1,000.0 8X8 EGHT 81.3 Microsemi MSCC 1,000.0 Catalyst Semiconductor CATS 80.5 AMIS Hldgs AMIS 973.1 Advanced Power Technology APTI 74.3 Siliconix SILI 969.3 Alliance Semiconductor ALSC 69.9 Applied Micro Circuits AMCC 850.3 Ramtron Intl RMTR 68.6 Omnivision Technologies OVTI 842.4 ANADIGICS ANAD 56.9 RF Microdevices RFMD 834.5 Micro Linear MLIN 55.7 On Semiconductor ONNN 812.7 RF Monolithics RFMI 47.4 Micrelorporated MCRL 757.1 Tripath Technology TRPH 44.4 DSP Group DSPG 708.0 Tvia TVIA 32.5 Macronix Intl MXICY 679.8 Simtek SRAM 32.1 Power Integrations POWI 669.9 Spectrum Signal Processing SSPI 24.8 Conexant Systems CNXT 624.8 NeoMagic NMGC 15.8 Lattice Semiconductor LSCC 556.7 Celeritek CLTK 10.6 Exar EXAR 529.9 DPAC Technologies DPAC 9.5

Logic Devices LOGC 9.3 Solitron Devices SODI 1.2Market Capitalization Data in Millions of Dollars


May 2005

InsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.Ventures reports on and analyzes the semiconductor industry based on information obtained from sources generallyavailable to the public, and from industry contacts. Although these sources are considered reliable, we cannot guarantee theiraccuracy. The opinions and views expressed herein reflect the judgment of HTE Research, Inc., and are subject to change. Wewelcome the views of subscribers on the content and analyses found in this report. HTE Research, Inc., and its editor(s) do nothave any equity positions in the companies profiled in InsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.VenturesInsideChips.Ventures unless specially noted at the end of the profile.

Semiconductor Stock Index

Public Company Spotlight

Short Term Long Term

Hytek Eliminates Jobs

Hytek Microsystems has reduced itsworkforce by nine employees, whichrepresents an approximately 10% reductionin head count. The majority of theterminated employees were dedicated tothe Medtronic work cell. In Jan. 2005,Medtronic notified Hytek that it wouldplace no further purchase orders with Hytek,as it intended to develop an internal sourceof supply. Although Hytek reassignedseveral of the work cell employees, thecompany said it was unable to absorb all ofthem into its current organizationalstructure.

In Feb. 2005, Hytek entered into amerger agreement with Natel Engineering.The companies expect to close thetransaction during Q2 2005. The report ofindependent auditors on Hytek’s Jan. 1,2005, financial statements includes anexplanatory paragraph indicating there issubstantial doubt about Hytek’s ability tocontinue as a going concern.

Founded in 1974 and headquartered inCarson City, Nev., Hytek specializes inhybrid microelectronic circuits that are usedin military applications, geophysicalexploration, medical instrumentation,satellite systems, industrial electronics,opto-electronics and other OEMapplications.

Silicon Image Suffers MassDeparture of Board Members

After four members of Silicon Image’sboard of directors resigned in late April, thecompany announced that founder David Leehad decided not to stand for re-election to theboard at the 2005 annual shareholder meeting.

Lee’s decision followed the resignationsof Christopher Paisley, chairman of theboard and member of the audit,compensation and governance andnominating committees; David Courtney,chairman of the audit committee and memberof the governance and nominatingcommittee; Keith McAuliffe, chairman ofthe compensation committee and memberof the audit and governance and nominatingcommittees; and Richard Sanquini, memberof the compensation and governance andnominating committees.

Paisley and Courtney stated that theywere resigning due to a disagreement overwhether or not Lee should be re-nominatedto the company’s board of directors, andMcAuliffe said he resigned due to eventssurrounding that same issue. The companysaid Sanquini resigned without stating areason.

As a result of the resignations, a majorityof the board of directors is not “independent”as required by NASDAQ listing

requirements, and no directors are servingon the audit committee of the board ofdirectors. NASDAQ listing rules requirethat the audit committee be comprised of atleast three independent directors.

Lee will continue to serve in his currentcapacity as an executive officer of SiliconImage and chairman of PanelLink Cinema,a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.The board also named Lee ChairmanEmeritus of Silicon Image for pastcontributions.

The company’s three remaining boardof directors are Steve Tirado, president andCEO; CFO Darrel Slack, who was appointedto the board following the resignations; andDavid Hodges, an independent director.

Cirrus Logic to DivestVideo Product Line

Cirrus Logic is divesting its digital videoproduct line assets to focus exclusively on itscore high-precision analog, mixed-signal andembedded ICs for audio and industrialapplications. Revenue associated with thedigital video product line in the third fiscalquarter, ending Dec. 25, 2004, was $3.1million, representing 7% of total revenue.Cirrus Logic has retained Lehman Brothersas its exclusive financial advisor in connectionwith a potential transaction involving thedigital video product line assets.

March 2004

InsideChips Ventures.Stock Market Scan

Cirrus Logic

Silicon Image

Maxim Integrated Products

Power Integrations

Rambus Omnivision Technologies


May 2005

Finance: News, Funding and Acquisitions

eASIC Receives Additional$7.5 Million

As follow-on to the previous investmentof $5 million in May 2004, Kleiner PerkinsCaufield & Byers (KPCB) and VinodKhosla have provided eASIC with $7.5million in equity financing.

Founded in 1999, eASIC is a providerof configurable logic and structured ASICproducts. The company’s configurable logictechnology is aimed at dramatically reducingthe overall fabrication cost and time ofcustomized high-performance semicon-ductor chips. Its structured eASICarchitecture enables rapid and low-costASIC and SOC designs by using provenprogrammable logic fabric in conjunctionwith single-via customizable segmentedrouting. As single-via generates 10x higherthroughput of direct-write e-Beamcustomization, it enables eASIC to offerNRE-free structured ASICs.Contact:Zvi Or-Bach, founder and CEO; Tel: 408

879-9400; www.easic.com.

Siano Mobile Silicon SecuresSeries A Financing

Israel-based Siano Mobile Silicon, astartup developing mobile digital television(MDTV) receiver solutions, has closed itsSeries A funding of $11.5 million. JerusalemVenture Partners led the round, whichincluded Walden Israel and Star Ventures.

Founded in June 2004 by a group ofIsraeli entrepreneurs, Siano is developingan all-CMOS, multi-standard, multi-bandintegrated receiver. The company istargeting the chip at cellular phones, laptopcomputers, portable video players, andsimilar portable consumer devices.Contact:Alon Ironi, CEO and president; Tel: +972 (9)

8656993; www.siana-ms.com.

Elixent Attracts Strategic Investmentfrom Panasonic, Toshiba

Reconfigurable semiconductorcompany Elixent has closed a new round offunding that, when complete, will total $15million. This latest round includes a strategicinvestment from Panasonic DigitalConcepts Center, the Silicon Valley-basedventure capital arm of Matsushita Electric

Industrial, and Toshiba. Existing investors3i, GIMV and NIF Ventures alsoparticipated.

Elixent’s D-Fabrix reconfigurablealgorithm processing (RAP) technologyreduces chip development costs by enablingthe same device to be used for multipleapplications. It does this without incurringthe size and power overheads of traditionalprogrammable solutions. This is ideal forthe growing convergence of consumerelectronics devices as multiple applicationscan be realized on the same chip.Contact:Ralph Weir, VP of marketing; Tel: +44

(0)117 917 5762; www.elixent.com.

Nortel Takes EquityStake in Sasken

Nortel has invested $10 million in SaskenCommunication Technologies for anundisclosed stake in Sasken’s fully dilutedequity. The two companies have also signedan amendment to an existing servicesagreement under which they will continueto work together to develop new softwareand deploy Nortel networking solutions.

Sasken, a pioneer in telecom researchand development (R&D) outsourcing, hasbeen a key supplier to Nortel since 1991,and is currently focused on supportingNortel’s GSM digital wireless and enterprisecommunications solutions. Sasken will alsoplay a major role in training, technicalsupport and other engineering services inNortel projects in India.

Sasken plans to use this investment tofuel its growth through acquisitions.

Established in 1989, Sasken offers acombination of complementary IP softwarecomponents, R&D consultancy and softwareservices to semiconductor manufacturers,network equipment companies, and globalwireless handset developers. Established in1989, Sasken employs over 2,000 staff,operating from R&D centers in Bangaloreand Pune, India, and has offices in Canada,China, Germany, Japan, Sweden, France,the U.K. and the United States.Contact:Rajiv Mody, chairman and CEO; Tel: 91 80

2535 5501; www.sasken.com.

Exar Acquires Infineon’s OpticalNetworking Product Line

Exar is acquiring a significant part ofInfineon Technologies’ Optical Networking(ON) Business Unit. The acquisitionincludes assets relating to multi-rate TDMframer products, Fiber Channel overSONET/SDH, Resilient Packet Ring (RPR),as well as certain IP for Data Over SONETproducts. The companies expect the all-cash transaction to close shortly.

The existing MetroMapper™ family ofEthernet over Sonet products will remainpart of Infineon’s product portfolio.

The sale of the Optical Networkingbusiness unit is part of Infineon’s strategy tostreamline its business activities to focus oncore markets in wireless and broadbandaccess communication. In Feb. 2005,Infineon sold its fiber optics business toFinisar, although it retained its parallel opticsand fiber operations. Under the terms ofthat agreement, Finisar issued 34 millionshares (valued at approximately $50 million)for the assets associated with the design,development and manufacture of all opticaltransceiver products.Contacts:Peter Fischl, Infineon executive VP and CFO;

Tel: +49 89 234 22404; www.infineon.com.Ronald Guire, Exar CFO and executive VP;

Tel: 510 668-7000; www.exar.com.

Provigent Ups Third Roundof Financing to $10 Million

Provigent has increased its third-roundfunding to $10 million, provided by thecompany’s previous third-round investors:Sequoia Capital, Pitango Venture Capital,Magnum Communications Fund, AscendTechnology Ventures, Delta Ventures, andAndrew Viterbi, co-founder ofQUALCOMM.

Provigent previously closed its thirdround of financing in Sept. 2004 for $8million. The total amount raised thus far,including the additional $2 million in newfunding, stands at $21 million.

Founded in Aug. 2000, Provigent isdeveloping algorithms and SOCs thataddress the fragmented, non-consumer,point-to-point (PTP) broadband wirelessmarket. Cellular backhaul, which links

May 2005


cellular and wired networks, represents amajor segment of this market. Another strongPTP market is fixed wireless transmissionnetworks, such as those that ILCECs use forconnecting their sites. Provigent’s thirdtarget market is private wireless networks,which are typically deployed bygovernmental agencies, as well as utilitiessuch as gas, electric, water and others.

Provigent’s first product, the PVG-310,is a single-chip modem that integrates allthe PHY baseband functionality forbroadband wireless transmission systems.All functions are implemented digitally andeliminate the need for external VCOs andloop filters. The company incorporatedflexibility by making certain modemparameters software programmable,including data rates, modulation schemesand bandwidth. The startup has alreadyachieved 20 design wins to date.

(See our profile of Provigent in the Oct.2004 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Dan Charash, CEO; Tel: 650 962-0183;

www.provigent.com.

TeraChip Secures New Funding

Switch fabrics provider TeraChip hasraised $7.2 million in its latest fundinground, led by Accel Partners and BenchmarkCapital. The company also appointed RodKay as president and CEO.

TeraChip will use the funding to expandits product portfolio and launch new salesand marketing initiatives internationally.The new funding will accelerate thecompletion of new products in TeraChip’sline of scalable switching solutions. Thecompany plans to increase staff by 10% to20% over the next year.

Kay succeeds Micha Zeiger, TeraChip’sfounding CEO, who becomes chairman ofthe board of directors and CTO. Kaypreviously served as VP of marketing atArdent Communications, a voice-over-packet startup acquired by Cisco Systemsin 1997. Following the acquisition by Cisco,Kay held executive marketing and business-development positions in Cisco’s Enterpriseand Service Provider business segments.Earlier, Kay was VP of marketing at XLNTDesigns (acquired by Intel) and AscomTimeplex.

Founded in 2000, TeraChip providesnext-generation merchant switch fabrics forswitch and router systems. TeraChip’sswitching solutions are optimized forenterprise (LAN), storage (SAN) and metro(MAN) switching and server-blade systems.

(See our profile of TeraChip in the March2003 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Rod Kay, president and CEO; Tel: 650 320-

8148; www.tera-chip.com.

TriQuint Sells OptoelectronicsOperations in Pennsylvania, Mexico

TriQuint Semiconductor is selling itsoptoelectronics operations in Breinigsville,Pa., and Matamoros, Mexico, to CyOptics,an optical components manufacturerheadquartered in Lehigh Valley, Pa. Theasset sale includes the products,manufacturing equipment, inventory, theMexican entity, related IP rights and otherassets that constitute the operation thatmanufactures indium phosphide (InP)optical chips and components for the opticalnetworking market.

TriQuint’s total consideration from thesale of the building and the business will beapproximately $32 million and will result ina one-time gain of between $7 million and$8 million. The company will also receivea minority ownership share in CyOptics.

TriQuint will continue to support currentoptical customers and products based ongallium arsenide, which are not associatedwith the operations in Pennsylvania andMexico. CyOptics plans to employ the vastmajority of TriQuint’s approximately 100employees in Pennsylvania andapproximately 150 employees in Mexico.

In a separate move, TriQuint is sellingits nearly 850,000-square-foot opto-electronics facility and surrounding propertyin Breinigsville, Pa., to Anthem Partners,an affiliate of MRA Group of PlymouthMeeting, Pa. MRA intends to transform theexisting facility into an advanced technologycenter, featuring a combination oftechnology research and development, bio-medical engineering, high-techmanufacturing, and a related educationadvancement and conference center.CyOptics will lease approximately 90,000square feet of space in this facility for its

operations once it has completed its purchaseof the business from TriQuint.Contacts:Ralph Quinsey, TriQuint president and CEO;

Tel: 503 615-9000; www.triquint.com.Ed Coringrato, CyOptics president and CEO;

Tel: 610 336-5758; www.cyoptics.com.Larry Stuardi, MRA Group president; Tel:

610 238-0500; www.mragroup.net.

Akustica Raises Series B Funding

Akustica, a pioneer in acoustic SOCsolutions, has raised $15 million in a SeriesB round of equity funding. Current investorsRangos Investments and MobiusTechnology Ventures co-led the round.

Akustica is commercializing twoMEMS-based innovations developed atCarnegie Mellon Univ. by MEMS pioneerKaigham (Ken) Gabriel and colleagues.The company is enabling OEMs to replacemicrophones and speakers in mobile phones,hearing aids and other consumer electronicdevices with its AkuSound acoustic MEMSSOCs. Gabriel, whom Forbes Magazinecalled “the architect of the US MEMSIndustry, is a co-founder and serves as CTOand chairman.

There are two primary classes oftechnology Akustica licensed and iscontinuing to develop, both developed byGabriel and his students and colleagues atCMU. The first is a unique acoustic MEMStechnology that functions as a transducer,capturing and reproducing sounds with themechanical membrane inside of the chip.

The other technology the companylicensed from CMU is CMOSmicromachining. Traditionally, achievinglarge-scale MEMS production required aheavy investment in proprietary and uniquefabrication approaches; this has been one ofthe major roadblocks to successfulcommercialization of MEMS. As thebeneficiary of CMU’s 10-year and $30-million investment in CMOSmicromachining, Akustica will be able toleverage the world’s CMOS productioninfrastructure.

(See our profile of Akustica in the Nov.2002 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Ken Gabriel, chairman and CTO; Tel: 412

390-1730; www.akustica.com.


May 2005

SST Acquires Flash MemoryTechnology Company

Flash memory technology specialistSilicon Storage Technology (SST) hasacquired substantially all of the shares ofprivately held Actrans Systems. Founded in2000 and headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan,Actrans Systems is a fabless IC companythat designs flash memory and EEPROM.SST plans to incorporate Actrans’ split-gate NAND flash technology into itsportfolio of licensable IP.

SST will pay Actrans’ shareholdersapproximately $20 million in common stockand cash. SST will merge Actrans’ engineersinto its Standard Memory Product Group,working in both Taiwan and the UnitedStates.

Actrans Systems develops flash memorytechnology and products and also offers IPservices for embedded and customer-specific applications using flash memoryand EEPROM IP macros. Actrans’ split-gate NAND flash memory technologies usea 0.15- and 0.12-micron process for targeteddensities ranging from 256 Mbit to 1Gbit.Powerchip Semiconductor, a licensee ofSST’s SuperFlash technology and an earlyinvestor in Actrans Systems, has validatedthe technology. SST expects to license thesesplit-gate NAND products to Powerchipand collaborate with the company to bringthese and other higher-density products intovolume production.Contact:Bing Yeh, SST president and CEO; Tel: 408

735-9110; www.sst.com.

Ciclon Semiconductor PurchasesAgere’s RF LDMOS Product Line

Ciclon Semiconductor Device, adeveloper of high-frequency LDMOSproducts, has acquired the RF LDMOSproduct line of Agere Systems. With theacquisition, Ciclon will acquire certainresearch and development andmanufacturing assets and inventory forARF4 and ARF5 high-voltage LDMOStechnologies. In addition, Agere will licenseand assign critical IP and software associatedwith the product line to Ciclon.

LDMOS (laterally diffused metal oxidesemiconductor) technology, known for itsability to operate at high voltages and to

support high-power applications ranging infrequency from 400 MHz to 3 GHz, haslong been the technology of choice in thewireless infrastructure market. Dominatingthe space for power amplifiers, high-powerLDMOS is a critical component in 3Gtechnology roll-out and accounts for nearly$700 million in sales each year, accordingto Allied Business Intelligence.

Agere said it decided to exit the RFpower business as part of its plan to focusresources on core technologies.

The Ciclon team, led by CEO MarkGranahan, is composed primarily of formerAgere Systems management andtechnologists. Key members of the teamwere involved in the development andqualification of Agere’s first-generationtechnology, ARF4.

Ciclon, which formed in 2004, does notat this time have a web site or contactinformation.Contact:Sohail Khan, Agere exec. VP and chief

strategy and development officer; Tel: 610712-4323; www.agere.com.

TeraVicta Closes$10 Million Financing

RF MEMS switch developer TeraVictaTechnologies has closed a $10 million roundof financing. Existing shareholdersConvergent Investors and Agave Capitalprovided $7.5 million of equity financing,with new investor Horizon TechnologyFinance providing an additional $2.5million.

Additionally, TeraVicta signed amanufacturing agreement with a HongKong-based manufacturing partner, ChinaResources Semiconductor (CRS). CRS, asubsidiary of China Resources Logic, willprovide high-volume production quantitiesof RF MEMS switching devices,augmenting the present volume capabilitiesof TeraVicta’s facility in Austin, Tex.

TeraVicta is shipping its first product, asingle-pole, double-throw (SPDT) RFMEMS switch called the TT712.Contact:Kenney Roberts, president and CEO; Tel: 512

684-8700; www.teravicta.com.

Morpho Technologies ClosesSeries C Funding, Hires New CEO

Morpho Technologies, a developer ofultra-high-performance digital signalprocessors (DSPs), has closed a $10 millionseries C funding round. Current investorsSmart Technology Ventures andBridgeWest co-led the round.

John Rayfield has joined MorphoTechnologies as CEO. Following eight yearswith ARM, most recently as VP of marketingfor the U.S., Rayfield formed Novelchange,a strategic business consultancy advisingcompanies in the microprocessor, DSP andsemiconductor IP space.

Morpho Technologies designs power-efficient, high-performance, reconfigurableDSP cores, which are based on thecompany’s proprietary MSI architecturecoupled with sophisticated development,simulation and design tools. The companyis committed to delivering technologydesigned around software defined radio(SDR) technology, which will enablereconfigurable system architectures forwireless networks.Contact:John Rayfield, CEO; Tel: 949 475-0626;

www.morphotech.com.

Golden Gate Capital AcquiresTDK Semiconductor

Golden Gate Capital has acquired TDKSemiconductor Corporation for anundisclosed sum. The current managementteam will continue to lead the acquiredcompany, which will maintain itsheadquarters and operations in Irvine, Calif.The acquired company will continue to becalled TDK Semiconductor Corporationfor a short transition period until a newname has been established.

TDK Semiconductor develops advancedanalog and mixed-signal IC products forconsumer, communications, and industrialapplications for a large number of globalcustomers.Contacts:David Dominik, Golden Gate Capital

managing director; Tel: 415 627-1387;www.goldengatecap.com.

Francis Sweeney, TDK U.S.A. president; Tel:516 535-2600; www.tdk.com.

May 2005


Xelerated Secures $17 Millionin New Funding

Network processor vendor Xeleratedhas closed a $17 million Series C roundwith new investors Accel Partners andAmadeus Capital Partners. Existinginvestors Atlas Venture and Alta Partnersalso participated in the round. The companywill use the funding to build out sales andsupport globally as well as to accelerate thedevelopment of next-generation products.

Founded in Aug. 2000, Xelerated hascombined the efficiency of an ASIC withthe programmability of network processors.Xelerated’s products target networkequipment for the enterprise and metroEthernet markets. The company has severaltier-one customers and key partnershipswith leading component vendors.

(See our profile of Xelerated in the July2001 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Johan Börje, CEO; Tel: 408 850-7155;

www.xelerated.com.

T-RAM Closes $40 MillionSeries C Round

T-RAM, a company developing a uniquetype of memory that combines the speed ofSRAM with the density of DRAM, hasraised $40 million in a Series C financinground. InterWest Partners led the round,which included new investor CenterPointVentures along with the existing investorsTallwood Venture Capital, Mayfield, USVenture Partners and NEA. The companyhas raised about $86 million to date.

T-RAM is currently offering variousconfigurations of its eZt™ (Enhanced Zero-Turnaround) Late-Late-Write SRAMPipelined Read; Zt™ (Zero-Turnaround)Late-Late-Write SRAM Pipelined Read;Zt™ (Zero-Turnaround) Late-Late-WriteSRAM Flow-Through Read; PipelinedBurst SRAM Pipelined Read, Single CycleDeselect; Pipelined Burst SRAM PipelinedRead, Double Cycle Deselect; and PipelinedBurst SRAM Flow-Through Read, SingleCycle Deselect.

(See our profile of T-RAM in the Jan.2004 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Kenneth Young, president and CEO; Tel: 408

597-3000; www.t-ram.com.

SiRF Technology to Acquire RFExpert Kisel Microelectronics

GPS specialist SiRF Technology isacquiring Kisel Microelectronics, acompany with extensive expertise incomplex integrated transceiver designs.SiRF has agreed to pay up to $33 million incombination of cash and stock. The boardsof directors of both companies andshareholders of Kisel have approved themerger, which the companies expect to closethis quarter.

Senior Ericsson designers founded Kiselat the end of 1999 under the name BlueChipIC Design to form a center of excellence forcomplex RFIC design. Kisel has beeninvolved in the development of multipleradios using a range of process technologies,from SiGe BiCMOS to pure bipolar andanalog/RF-CMOS. The company hascontributed its expertise to applications suchas Bluetooth, WiMAX, WLAN, W-CDMA,UWB, GSM/PCS/DCS, and several ISMapplications.

As part of the transaction, SiRF willestablish SiRF Technology (Sweden) as awholly owned subsidiary, and will hire all19 Kisel employees. The team in Swedenwill continue their design services work forselected key customers and will also workin conjunction with the SiRF RF engineeringteam in San Jose, Calif., on new productdevelopments.

Kisel’s managing director, TomasMelander, will become managing directorof SiRF Technology (Sweden).Contacts:Michael Canning, SiRF president and CEO;

Tel: 408 467-0410; www.sirf.com.Tomas Melander, Kisel managing director;

Tel: +46 8 410 300 60; www.kisel.com.

X-EMI Adds $5 Millionto Series A Funding

X-EMI, a semiconductor companydelivering technology that significantlyreduces electromagnetic interference (EMI)in electronics systems, has added anadditional $5 million investment to its SeriesA round of funding. New investors AccessVenture Partners, DFJ Mercury, andMarkPoint Venture Partners provided thefunds, joining existing investors A-roundinvestors InterWest Partners, Novus

Ventures, and Waypoint Ventures.

While EMI issues are typically handledby masking them at the end of the designcycle, X-EMI’s solution eliminates theproblem at the source. The company’s chip-based solution is comprised of a transmitterand receiver. The company employs analgorithmic approach that basically destroysthe clock and then extracts it at the end torecover a clean clock. X-EMI says itssolution adds no jitter or changes in slewrate, and can reduce EMI by several ordersof magnitude.

(See our profile of X-EMI in the Jan.2005 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Larry Woodson, CEO; Tel: 512 493-9660;

www.x-emi.com.

Pericom Invests in FrequencyControl Products Supplier

Pericom Semiconductor is investingapproximately $12.6 million in AKERTechnology Taiwan, a Taiwanese crystaland frequency control productsmanufacturing company. The companiesexpect the investment to be completed inJuly 2005, at which point Pericom will holdan approximately 36.4% interest in AKER,making Pericom AKER’s largestshareholder. AKER is traded on the TaiwanOTC Exchange (TWO) under the symbolAKER, Code 6174.

This investment will enable Pericom toleverage its existing SaRonix frequencycontrol product line with AKER’s low-costmanufacturing and product-developmentcapabilities.Contacts:Alex Hui, Pericom president and CEO; Tel:

408 435-0800; www.pericom.com.Shi Rong-Wan, Aker president; Tel: 04 2533-

5978; www.aker.com.tw.

ATMI Sells its MinorityInterest in Emosyn to SST

ATMI, a supplier of materials andmaterials packaging to semiconductormanufacturers, has sold its 16.4% minorityinterest in the Emosyn smart card businessto Silicon Storage Technology for $3.1million.

In Sept. 2004, ATMI sold its Emosynsmart card business to Silicon StorageTechnology through a newly formed


May 2005

subsidiary, Emosyn International. ATMIhad retained a 16.4% ownership position inthat original transaction. ATMI is nowselling that remaining portion, which willresult in Emosyn becoming a wholly ownedsubsidiary of SST.Contacts:Doug Neugold, ATMI CEO; Tel: 203 794-

1100; www.atmi.com.Bing Yeh, SST chairman, president and CEO;

Tel: 408 735-9110; www.sst.com.

Avnet Acquires GlobalSemiconductor Distributor Memec

Avnet is acquiring Memec in a stock andcash transaction valued at approximately$676 million, including the assumption ofapproximately $194 million of Memec’snet debt. Under the terms of the agreement,Memec investors will receive a total ofapproximately 24.011 million shares ofAvnet common stock plus approximately$64 million of cash. Avnet expects thetransaction to generate annual synergies ofapproximately $130 million from costsavings, including $10 million from reducedinterest expense.

Memec, a global distributor specializingin semiconductors, generated revenue ofapproximately $2.3 billion in calendar year2004. Memec has operations in 33 countriesand 130 cities, and is the largestsemiconductor distributor focused primarilyon design chain services. In calendar year2004, Memec grew total revenueapproximately 27%, with the Americasaccounting for 44% of Memec’s 2004revenue followed by the Asia region,including Japan, at 31% and Europe, MiddleEast and Africa at 25%.

Avnet will integrate Memec, whichemploys 2,400 people, into its ElectronicsMarketing Group. After the acquisition,Avnet’s Electronics Marketing Group willhave operations in 69 countries andanticipated annual sales of more than $8.5billion.Contacts:Roy Vallee, Avnet chairman and CEO; Tel:

480 643-2000; www.avnet.com.David Ashworth, Memec president and CEO;

Tel: 858 314-8800; www.memec.com.

Rambus Acquires Digital Core IPFrom GDA Technologies

Rambus has acquired digital core IPassets from GDA Technologies, anelectronic design services (EDS) solutionprovider. The deal provides Rambus withdigital controller IP to complement itsexisting line of high-speed interface physicallayer (PHY) products. Specifically, Rambusis acquiring digital core IP compatible withPCI Express, Ethernet, SPI-4, USB andSATA protocols, as well as products thatare currently in development and will bemade available based on customer demand.

Prakash Bare, VP of GDA’s IP businessunit, will move to Rambus as GM of thedigital IP business. Rambus will also beextending offers to a number of GDATechnologies employees, both in San Jose,Calif., and Bangalore, India, that areaffiliated with the design and developmentof these digital IP cores.

As part of this agreement, GDA becomesa reseller of these digital controllers andwill offer this IP along with its IP and IP-enabled services. Additionally, GDA mayuse the controllers in custom designs througha technology licensing agreement. GDATechnologies will continue to provideelectronic design services, semiconductorIP, verification IP and value-added IP-enabled services.Contacts:Samir Patel, Rambus VP of engineering; Tel:

650 947-5000; www.rambus.com.Prakash Bare, GDA VP of IP business unit;

Tel: 91 44 3061 3300; www.gdatech.com.

TAK Imaging Closes $10 MillionFunding Round

TAK Imaging, a provider of dedicatedimaging processors and solutions, hasreceived an additional $10 million from itsventure partners to support a family of newhardware and software solutions for thephoto-enabled printer market. The companyplans to launch its first imaging solutionsthis summer for the inkjet, dye sublimationand multi-function peripheral (MFP)categories of the photo-enabled printermarket.

The new funding round includes allcurrent investors: Jerusalem VenturePartners (JVP), Sofinnova Partners,

Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures,Ventech, SPEF Venture, Innovacom andCrossBridge Venture Partners of Japan.TAK Imaging raised $16.25 million in itsSeries C funding round in Jan. 2004.

TAK Imaging has also completed theacquisition of CompuMetric Labs, aFairhope, Ala.-based printer technologydeveloper and consulting services company.The acquisition bolsters its development ofready-to-customize, system-level solutionsfor printer OEMs.

Formerly TAK’ASIC, the companychanged its name to TAK Imaging on Jan.1, 2005.

(See our profile of TAK Imaging, underthe former TAK’ASIC name, in the Aug.2003 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Doug Goodyear, CEO; Tel: 650 350-1100;

www.takasic.com.

ChipMOS to Sell its Stake in FirstSemiconductor Technology

ChipMOS Technologies has reached anagreement to sell its ownership interest inFirst Semiconductor Technology (FST)back to FST. ChipMOS Taiwan acquired a67.83% interest in FST in Nov. 2004 inconnection with its acquisition of testingand assembly equipment from FirstInternational Computer Testing andAssembly (FICTA).

Under the share repurchase agreement,ChipMOS Taiwan will transfer 2.52 millionshares of FST to FST in exchange for totalconsideration of approximately $2 million,which is equivalent to the book value as ofthe date ChipMOS Taiwan purchased theshares.Contact:S.K. Chen, ChipMOS CFO; Tel: +886-6-507-

7712; www.chipmos.com.tw.


May 2005

Analyzing the Analysts

Table 2 -- Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing EquipmentVendor Revenue Estimates for 2004 ($ Millions)

*Tokyo Electron announced a change in its accounting rules in 2004, switching fromshipment-based to acceptance-based revenue recognition. However, because there is nocomplete financial picture available for 2004, Gartner continues to report the company inits 2004 market share reports based on shipment-based revenue.

Note: Data includes revenue from acquisitions in 2003 for the entire year.Source: Gartner Dataquest (April 2005)

2004 Rank

2003 Rank Company 2004

Revenue

2004 Market

Share (%)

2003 Revenue

Growth (%)

1 1 Applied Materials 6,310 16.5 3,211 96.6

2 2 Tokyo Electron Ltd.* 4,035 10.5 2,175 85.5

3 3 ASML 2,683 7 1,435 87

4 5 Advantest 2,213 5.8 1,077 105.5

5 6 KLA-Tencor 1,567 4.1 1,005 55.9

6 4 Nikon 1,522 4 1,301 17

7 7 Novellus 1,198 3.1 805 48.8

8 13 Canon 1,176 3.1 531 121.5

9 9 Lam Research 1,155 3 601 92.1

10 14 Dainippon Screen 1,052 2.8 530 98.6

Others 14,939 40.1 10,220 46.2Total 37,850 100 22,891 64.2

Worldwide Semiconductor ManufacturingEquipment Revenue Grew 64% in 2004

Driven by strong device unit demand and tight manufacturingcapacity, worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipmentsales reached $37.6 billion in 2004, a 64.2% increase from 2003,according to Gartner.

The 2004 market was marked by capacity buys with selecttechnologies in especially high demand, such as memory and SOCtest, flip-chip bonding, select deposition, etch and photoresistprocessing. The strength of Asia/Pacific, driven by foundry andmemory investment and a cooling in growth in Japan, affordedEurope- and Americas-based equipment vendors an opportunityto regain market share against their Japanese rivals.

The top-10 vendors had double-digit growth in 2004, althoughGartner analysts attribute some of these large increases to slowsales in 2003. Applied Materials’ revenue increased 96.6% in2004, as its market share increased from 14% in 2003 to 16.5% in2004. Canon experienced the largest growth rate, as its revenueincreased 121.5% in 2004. (See Table 2.)

All equipment segments had strong growth. Wafer fabequipment (WFE), the largest sector, saw the strongest growth at68.6%, following a weak performance in 2003. Packaging andassembly equipment (PAE) expanded by 45.9%, while automatedtest equipment (ATE) jumped 58.5%.

While the industry experienced significant revenue increases,Gartner analysts said equipment suppliers experienced mixedresults as the year came to an end. The positive outcome for the

industry in 2004 was the result of tight supply and demandfundamentals. However, the emergence of excess inventories inthe second quarter and the subsequent cutbacks in manufacturingin the second half of 2004 heightened the sense of caution. This ledto a premature opening of a supply and demand gap, and equipmentorders declined in the latter half of the year.

Asia/Pacific was the fastest-growing region, with spendingincreasing 108% in 2004. Asia/Pacific accounted for more than50% of all equipment spending in 2004, a first in the history of theindustry. Japan’s equipment purchases grew 48.4%, while Europeanspending increased 22.8%. Gartner analysts said this slower growthwas not from a lack of spending by European companies, but wascaused by an export of investment money from Europe largely intothe U.S. and Asia. After three consecutive years of decline,equipment spending in the Americas grew 17.8%.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report“Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Sales Exploded in2004.”Contact:Klaus Rinnen, research VP for semiconductor manufacturing and

design research group; Tel: 203 964-0096; www.gartner.com.

New Study Forecasts a Good Year for 3G,but a Down Year For Older Technologies

Forward Concepts concludes in its new in-depth study of theworldwide cell phone market and the chips that go into the phonesthat 2004 cell phone shipments reached a record 715 million units,including inexpensive PHS/PAS units in China. The study projectsthat 2005 overall unit sales will increase only by 4.5% to the 746-

million level, with larger markets for oldertechnologies declining and offsetting strong gainsby newer technologies. For example, ForwardConcepts projects that older TDMA shipments willfall by 30%, and even traditional GSM shipmentswill decline by a projected 23% this year.

On the other hand, cell phones addressing newerhigh-bandwidth technologies will grow sharply.EDGE cell phones will grow by 51% to the 60-million unit level, WCDMA cell phones will growby 165% to the 45-million level and CDMA20001xEVDO terminals (cards and handsets) will growby 65% to 16 million units. Although 2G PersonalHandyPhone service (PHS) is being rapidlydisplaced in Japan by newer technologies, cellphones based on PHS will grow by 24% to the 77-million level as the inexpensive units gain ground inChina, Taiwan, India and other countries.

Forward Concepts’ assessment is that TexasInstruments remains the No. 1 cellular chip provideroverall, and also the No. 1 provider of basebandchips for both 2G and 3G/UMTS cellular. And,with its OMAP2 application processor, TI hasquickly become number one in that market segmentas well. The report states that TI cannot be


May 2005

complacent, however, as Qualcomm still dominates the CDMAmarket and has a large number of design-ins for its UMTSbaseband chips. Freescale Semiconductor had a very good year in2004 and is also gaining ground in the cellular chip market.

The cellular handset has become the physical and marketmagnet that is pulling in the functionality of digital cameras, PDAs,MP3 players, GPS navigation, Bluetooth, and even Wi-Fi, and isquickly becoming the dominant market for each and all of thesefunctions, and more. Forward Concepts’ new market study exploresthe market dynamics of each of these functions and the cell phonechip prospects for each of them.

The new 560-page study, entitled “Global Cellular Handset &Chip Markets,” provides detailed forecasts (by technology and byregion) of handsets, chips, and subscribers (by country), andprofiles cell phone OEMs, ODMs, cellular operators and the keychip vendors. The report also provides estimates of the marketshares of the 40 major cell phone vendors, as well as the marketshares of the top cell phone chip vendors for digital basebands,analog basebands/power management, RF transceivers, RF poweramplifiers, application processors, camera sensors, Bluetooth andcolor display drivers.Contact:Will Strauss, president; Tel: 480 968-3759; www.fwdconcepts.com.

DSL, Cable Modem and PONChip Sales to Grow Steadily

The battle for broadband access into the home continues to heatup as higher bandwidth chip technology innovations ultimatelyenable service providers to deliver “triple-play” service plans. IDCbelieves the addition of VoIP and high-definition video serviceswill remain a top priority for many carriers and cable providersworldwide. Increased competition from several fast-moving CLECs,large cellular carriers, and specialized VoIP and IP video serviceproviders, coupled with the desire to increase annual revenues peruser (ARPU), will drive further equipment replacement andexpansion. In this environment, IDC predicts that the worldwideDSL, cable modem, and PON semiconductor market will pass the$2 billion mark by 2009.

The ability to support faster speeds over 20 Mbps, improvedquality of service features, and increased security will fuel demandfor a new breed of chip products that will be at the heart of next-generation broadband designs. More highly integrated copper-based DSL and cable modem chips, along with lower cost and morestandardized fiber-based PON chips and optical modules, willdrive a healthy round of OEM development as service providersplan upgrades to their infrastructure over the next few years.

Two recently released IDC studies explore demand trends anddiscuss major semiconductor supplier strategies within the DSL,cable modem, and PON equipment markets. The following keyfindings are presented in these studies:

• For DSL, adoption of higher-speed ADSL2+ technology willcontinue to drive most carriers’ new deployment, while the upcomingVDSL2 standard will drive healthy upgrades in shorter copper loopenvironments.

• For cable modems, MSOs will continue to aggressively addVoIP capability within their designs as improving DOCSIS standardshelps them compete with faster next-generation DSL products.

• For PON, Japan currently drives most deployment activity andwill be the largest volume opportunity to chase in the near term.However, certain carriers in the U.S., Korea, China, and Taiwanwill also start larger field trials in 2005, which will lead to moremainstream deployments beyond 2006.

• PON will replace DSL completely in fiber to the home(FTTH) environments, while in others it will be employed as abackhaul technology to offer fiber extension to remote DSLterminal infrastructure.

• Although broadband technology has started to reach subscribersaturation points in some well-established markets, emergingcountries such as China and India are still showing significantupside opportunities.

IDC’s two studies covering these issues are “Worldwide DSLand Cable Modem Semiconductor 2005-2009 Forecast,” and“Worldwide PON Semiconductor 2005-2009 Forecast and Analysis.”Contact:Sean Lavey, IDC program manager in semiconductor research group;

Tel: 508 872-8200; www.idc.com.

IBM’s Cell Processor Impressive,but Not an Intel Killer

A closely guarded secret for five years, IBM’s Cell processorhas finally been unveiled, and In-Stat expects the chip to have amajor impact on the video game market. The goal of Cell developerswas to create a new architecture that could process the nextgeneration of broadband media and graphics with greater efficiencythan the traditional approaches of ultra-deep pipelines and theganging of numerous complex and power-inefficient, out-of-orderRISC or CISC cores. According to In-Stat, the chip will be a majorpart of Sony’s next-generation game console, and may have otherapplications, but is unlikely to encroach dramatically on Intel’sterritory.

While some have called Cell an “Intel killer,” In-Stat believesthat the only place the Cell processor can be considered competitionfor Intel will be where the Sony next-generation game consolecompetes with the Media Center PC.

Most of the actual chips in the Cell family are unannounced. Theonly announced product from the family is the version to be placedin Sony’s PlayStation 3. Overall, Sony will remain the market leaderin the next generation of consoles with its release of the PlayStation3, although In-Stat expects both Microsoft and Nintendo to close thegap and release next-generation consoles of their own. In-Statforecasts that total combined PlayStation 3, Xbox 2 and Revolutionrevenue will rise from $1.1 billion in 2005 to $9.4 billion in 2008.

The report, “Cell Processors: Separating Reality from Hype,”is the first report published from In-Stat’s new EmergingSemiconductor Chips & Applications service.Contact:Kevin Krewell, In-Stat analyst; Tel: 408 345-1634; www.instat.com.

May 2005

InsideChips Ventures.Emerging Ventures

Update: TransDimension

We first profiled TransDimension, aUSB-focused company developing ICs, IPcores and enabling software, in April 2001.Since then, TransDimension has made twokey acquisitions, launched four USB chips,and collected an impressive list of big-name customers for its chips and IPproducts, including Hewlett-Packard,Freescale, Qualcomm and Samsung, amongothers.

TransDimension began shippingproduct at the end of 2001, experiencing itsbreakout year in 2004. The company had$20 million in revenues in 2004, up from$4.9 million in 2003. TransDimensionexpects to double that to $40 million in2005.

A key part of TransDimension’s successis due to the acquisition of two companies.In Nov. 2001, TransDimension picked upSoftConnex, a provider of embedded USBsoftware for non-Windows environments.The SoftConnex acquisition enablesTransDimension to offer three levels ofUSB software, providing not only the chipdriver but also the USB protocol stack andclass drivers, such as digital camera, massstorage, video cameras and many others.This is an important differentiator forTransDimension, as it enables the companyto offer a complete turnkey solution, whilecompetitors such as Cypress Semiconductorand Philips only provide the chip driver.

The second acquisition involved theassets of ARC International’s peripheralconnectivity business in June 2004, whichprovided TransDimension with high-speedUSB IP. The company was in a classicmake-or-buy situation, where internaldevelopment would have required devoting15 to 18 months and several million dollars.Instead, TransDimension spent $7 millionon the ARC assets purchase and not onlypicked up a proven core and an experiencedteam, but also an actual business that isgenerating revenues.

TransDimension’s initial IC productswere full-speed (12 Mbps) embedded hostcontrollers, but the ARC high-speed assetshave enabled the company to develop high-speed chips (480 Mbps).

TransDimension closed a $12 million

Series C round in 2004, and thensubsequently opened up a $7 million SeriesD round to do the ARC acquisition.VantagePoint Venture Partners led the seriesD financing, with participation by iSherpaCapital. GKM Ventures led the Series Cfinancing, which included both Series Dparticipants as well as Rolling Oaks Capitaland Shelter Capital Partners. The combinedSeries C and Series D financings totaled$18.35 million. To date, TransDimensionhas raised approximately $35 million.

TransDimension, which has 60employees, has undergone somemanagement changes over the last few years.Ping Liang, who founded TransDimensionin 1997 and served as president and CEO,left the company in Aug. 2002. Liangremained on the board of directors until2004, but is no longer involved with thecompany.

TransDimension hired Rick Goerner inFeb. 2002 to take over as president andCEO. Previously, Goerner was presidentand COO of the Texas Instruments/SiliconSystems Storage Products Group. Beforeits acquisition by TI, he held seniormanagement, business unit, marketing andsales positions at Silicon Systems/TDKGroup Company, culminating in his role asCOO. Goerner has also held senior salesand marketing positions with Signetics andTeledyne Semiconductor.

Jay Standiford serves as VP of ASICengineering. Standiford was previously thedirector of SOC engineering for the PlatformTechnologies Division of ConexantSystems. He also served as director ofengineering for TI’s Digital Solutions team,which evolved from the TI Storage Productsdivision, where he held several positionsranging from manager of digital design forHDD read channels to lead project engineer.Prior to TI, Standiford spent time at SiliconSystems/TDK Group and was anhonorarium professor at the Univ. ofColorado.

Pete Todd, VP of worldwide sales, wassenior VP of account development forToshiba America Electronic Components.During his 17 years in the industry, Toddhas also held various marketing and salespositions within Toshiba, as well as a designengineering position for Northrop.

Mark Becker joined TransDimensionas VP of finance/administration and CFO inFeb. 2005. Becker previously served asCFO at wafer foundry Jazz Semiconductor.Prior to Jazz, he held positions at ConexantSystems, Burr-Brown, CrystalSemiconductor and TI.

On the product side of TransDimension’sbusiness, the company is shipping a familyof four USB chips that accounted for themajority of last year’s revenues.TransDimension has shipped more than 10million of these chips, which are comprisedof host controllers, peripheral controllers,and USB On-the-Go (OTG) controllers(USB OTG enables various devices toexchange data directly with each otherwithout going through a PC).

TransDimension is currently focused onthe introduction and design-in of theTD242LP, an all-in-one low-power host,peripheral and OTG controller. Other newproducts include:

• TD1120 — Single-chip USB OTGcontroller that incorporates a full-speed hostand a high-speed peripheral controller;

• TD6100 — Full-speed USB OTGtransceiver with built-in high-current chargepump.

Products in development include theTD 2100, TransDimension’s first chip thatemploys the high-speed USB core acquiredfrom ARC; the TD2140, which takes thatcore design and adds a CEATA interface;and the TD1140, which is the 1120 with aCEATA interface.

TransDimension is also developingproducts for the UWB market. Whileexisting UWB companies are focused onthe PC side, TransDimension is addressingthe underserved non-PC, or peripheral, sideof this market. The company’s TD5100 willbe a wireless USB host and scheduler blockwith an MBOA MAC provided by its partnercompany, Blue7 Communications (see ourprofile of Blue 7, a UWB startup developingboth the RF and baseband in CMOS, in theOct. 2003 issue of InsideChips.Ventures).TransDimension also partnered withStonestreetOne, a provider of short-rangewireless software solutions, to provide acomplete wireless USB software solution.

On the IP side of TransDimension’s


May 2005

business, the company’s goal is to continuegenerating revenues from its investment inIP, but to engage a partner to handle pre-sales support, technical negotiations,contracting, and support and maintenancework. TransDimension had initially enteredinto an agreement with ARM, whereby ARMwould license and represent the IP to itscustomers. After ARM’s acquisition ofArtisan, however, TransDimension saw thatits IP would not have received adequatevisibility. The company found a goodreplacement partner in an un-namedcompany that supplies USB PHYs.

The company currently has about 45licensees.

TransDimension’s strategy is to generate75% to 80% of its revenue via its chipproducts, and the remaining 20% to 25%from software and IP licensing. In 2004,about $16 million of the company’s $20million in revenues was in chips, with theremaining $4 million evenly split betweenIP and software.

We believe TransDimension haspositioned itself well in the burgeoningUSB and OTG markets. The companywisely acquired SoftConnex and ARC’sUSB business, both for relatively littlemoney, and both of which enhancedTransDimension’s IC products and IP/software portfolio. The company’s valueproposition is that it can provide completeturnkey solutions, an important factor in theCE industry, where companies have limitedamounts of time to bring out new products.In addition to delivering a number of “firsts”in the industry — embedded USB hostcontroller, for example, and OTG chip –TransDimension appears to have a goodgrasp of what devices its customers willneed to enable future CE products. Thecompany’s early focus on providing UWBsolutions for the non-PC side of the wirelessmarket enables it to both leverage its existingsoftware and gain traction before this spacebecomes flooded with competitors.Contact:TransDimension135 Technology DriveSuite 250Irvine, CA 92618

Tel: 949 727-2020Fax: 949 727-3232Web: www.transdimension.com.

Silicon Optix

Spun out of Genesis Microchip in June2000, Silicon Optix is developing video/image digital-processing ICs for the high-end video market. The company’s primaryinitiative is a video-processing chip thatcombines a programmable and verypowerful DSP, high-quality algorithms andproprietary geometry processing. SiliconOptix is initially targeting large-areadisplays, although its objective is to bemuch more than just a display chip company.Large displays represent the short-term low-hanging fruit, while the company’s long-term objective is to be a platform digitalvideo DSP company that addresseseverything from capture and transmissionto distribution, editing, storage and display.

Headquartered in San Jose, Calif.,Silicon Optix has grown to 160 people inseven locations. All R&D is performed inSan Jose and Orlando, Fla., in the U.S., andToronto in Canada. The company maintainsan applications team in Hanover, Germany,and a customer support office in Taiwanand two in China.

Silicon Optix has raised about $100million over three funding rounds: $9 millionSeries A in 2000, $48 million Series B in2002/2003, and $43 million Series C in2004. The company’s major investors arePolaris, Canaan, Apax, InterWest, Focus,Origin, Primaxis and Acer Ventures. Genesisowns less than 1% of Silicon Optix.

Paul Russo, who serves as chairman,president and CEO, is the principal founderof Silicon Optix. Russo was the founder ofGenesis Microchip, and served as CEO anddirector from its inception in 1987 through2000, and as chairman through April 2001.Russo was previously GM of GE´sMicroelectronics Center, and seniormanager in GE´s Industrial ElectronicsGroup. From 1970 to 1980, Russo was amember of the technical staff and head ofmicrosystems research at RCA´s DavidSarnoff Research Center. He currentlyserves as an outside director of ATITechnologies.

Silicon Optix has made two keyacquisitions along the way. In Sept. 2003,the company acquired LiesegangElectronics (LE), a subsidiary of Liesegangthat served as its development arm. When

Liesegang switched to an OEM model, itdecided to unload the approximately 15-person LE, which Silicon Optix reportedlypicked up for a bargain price in the lowsingle-digit millions.

The most significant acquisition wasTeranex, which Silicon Optix bought in2004. Teranex is a systems company thatdesigns converters, post-processors andnoise reducers for professionals working inbroadcasting and post-production houses.Silicon Optix initially engaged with Teranexin 2001 to essentially put a Teranex box ona chip. Because Silicon Optix had certainexclusivity rights to the IP, the companywas able to buy Teranex when its VCsdecided to sell the company. We believe thetransaction was approximately $10 million– a steal, considering the technology SiliconOptix picked up.

Lockheed Martin spent a decade andclose to a $100 million developing apowerful SIMD architecture for videoprocessing, eventually spinning out thetechnology as Teranex, which spent another$50 million of venture capital moneyperfecting software and algorithms to runon the processor. Early on, Silicon Optixrecognized that, with 0.13-microntechnology, it could make a chip with theperformance of the old Teranex boxes andwhich also incorporated its own proprietarygeometry processing to create the ultimatevideo processor.

To do this from scratch would likely bea $300 million initiative, while Silicon Optixhas been able to leverage the 10-plus yearsand $150 million investment in thefoundation of the DSP architecture andalgorithms. It provides a significant barrierto entry for others that want to address thehigh-end video equipment market.

Silicon Optix debated whether to keepTeranex as a business unit, eventuallyrealizing that, as a business unit, Teranexcould serve as a great vehicle for drivingleading-edge IP. Silicon Optix ismaintaining code compatibility across allits products, and therefore expects toultimately implement on its chips all theinnovations that come out of Teranex.

Silicon Optix’s chip products consist ofthe sxZX1, sxW1, and REON, plus therecently released top-of-the-line Realta.

May 2005


When the company spun out of Genesis itpicked up a couple of the mother company’schips, the sxZX1 and sxW1, along with thecustomer base. The REON chip is the resultof the Liesegang acquisition. Silicon Optixhas between 40 and 50 customers using itsolder chips.

The company’s flagship product, theRealta, provides video processingcapabilities equivalent to those in the high-end $60,000 Teranex Xantus system. TheRealta aggregates the three legs of thecompany’s technology IP: high-quality real-time geometry processing (all of the olderchips provide this as well); a patented DSPprocessor, which is the part of the story thathas roots at Lockheed Martin ; and provenhigh-quality algorithms, which can beimplemented in hard-wired form or assoftware that runs on the processor. TheREALTA also employs a 32-bit Tensilicacore to control the chip.

Silicon Optix’s real-time geometryprocessing (known as WARP, a digital videoeffect involving any two- or three-dimensional change in shape of an inputpicture) can do high-definition video pixel-by-pixel in real time, and apply intelligenceto each individual pixel. By applying strongimage processing in this way, the companyis able to mimic the function of lenses,enabling customers to employ lower-costand lower-quality optics and then improvingthe image quality digitally.

The company’s geometry processingalso provides very-high-quality 2D off-axiscorrection, enabling users to place aprojector anywhere in a room and stillmaintain a high-quality rectangular image.In addition, REALTA can capture a wide-angle image with a wide-angle lens andsensor, and then take any portion of thewarped image and unwrap it in real time.This enables pan, tilt, and zoom functionalitydigitally with no moving parts.

The company’s DSP platform is thebeneficiary of the Lockheed Martin/Teranex/Silicon Optix development historydiscussed earlier. The SIMD device has3,072 processors running at 330 MHz formore than a trillion OPS. The DSP representsabout half the chip.

Silicon Optix is selling the Realta forapproximately $90 for volumes in the50,000-units-per-year range. Although

pricey, the Realta is going into products thatcost thousands. The first CE product to shipwith the Realta chip is Denon’s flagshipDVD player, the DVD-5910, which has asuggested retail price of $3500.

Silicon Optix also offers systemsproducts for professional AV and hometheater installations. However, except forthe very-high-end Teranex equipment, thecompany is moving to an OEM model forthese other box systems. A customer thatdoes not want to spend the R&D resourcesbut still wants the technology can buy thesesystems and just slap its name on them.

Although the company has bitten offquite a bit for a startup, Silicon Optix hasformidable technology and appears to knowits markets and customers very well. Insteadof competing with Genesis and ATITechnologies in the low-end, high-volumemarket, the company has staked out aposition in the high-end CE market – similarto the positioning of BMW or Mercedes inthe auto industry, where volumes are stillgood and margins are higher. The companyeven has the equivalent of a Rolls Royce inTeranex. By serving as a video DSPsolutions company that offers code-compatible middle-range chips, higher-endchips, blades, boxes and Teranex systems,as well as a range of services, software andtools, we believe the company is going tosucceed in establishing “stickiness” withcustomers.

Hamid Farzaneh, executive VP of salesand business development, was previouslyco-founder and COO of Motion Sense, afabless MEMS controller startup. Prior toMotion Sense, Farzaneh was executive VP/COO of Genesis Microchip, and VP ofsales and marketing at ASAT. Earlier, hespent seven years at National Semiconductorin marketing and business development.

CTO Louie Lee, a co-founder of SiliconOptix, was previously manager of theAdvanced Technology DevelopmentDepartment at Genesis Microchip. BeforeGenesis, Lee served as manager ofarchitecture at Matrox TyphoonTechnologies, a subsidiary of MatroxGraphics. He also served as design centermanager and program manager at LSI Logic.He was engineering manager at LittonSystems from 1984 to 1994, and started hiscareer at Perle Systems.

Kent Goodin, executive VP ofengineering and technology, was the VP ofVLSI engineering at Parama Networks.Before Parama, he served as GM of theMediamatics Group at NationalSemiconductor and, from 1988 to 1996,worked in various engineering andmanagement roles at Weitek.

Stephen Wood serves as VP of sales andcustomer support. Wood was previouslyVP of pro A/V engineering of FocusEnhancements, and president and co-founder of PC Video Conversion (acquiredby Focus in 1998). Earlier, he was sales andmarketing manager at Redlake, and imageprocessing product specialist at MetraByte(acquired by the Keithley Corporation).Wood started his career as a sales engineerwith Matrox Electronics.

Dennis Crespo is the company’s VP ofmarketing. Crespo previously served as VPof sales and marketing at Arithmos (now STMicro). He has also been director ofmarketing at S3, marketing manager forWeitek, and product manager at DiamondMultimedia Systems.

Douglas Lucky, VP of finance andcorporate development, was a partner withRBC Capital Partners Technology Fund,where he co-led the Series A investment inSilicon Optix. He previously spent 15 yearsas partner and senior VP with Ernst &Young Corporate Finance.

Michael Hopton, based in Toronto, isVP of operations. Hopton joined thecompany from Genesis, where he wasmanager of manufacturing engineering.Before Genesis, he worked as a seniorproduct engineer for Texas Instruments inits mixed-signal ASIC division.

Eric Erdman joined the company asexecutive VP of operations and CFO in April2005. Erdman spent the last decade at GenesisMicrochip. He initially served as CFO, andspent the last two years as interim CEO.Contact:Silicon Optix2025 Gateway PlaceSuite 360San Jose, CA 95110

Tel: 408 487-9290Fax: 408 487-9298Web: www.siliconoptix.com.


May 2005

Auvitek International

Founded in March 2004, AuvitekInternational is developing a portfolio ofhigh-performance DTV/HDTVdemodulation processors for the digitaltelevision (DTV) market. With mandatoryDTV adoption deadlines in place in manycountries, the stage is set for DTV to reallytake off in the mass consumer market.Auvitek’s objective is to reduce theelectronics BOM for DTV manufacturers,who can then provide much more affordableDTVs to consumers.

Auvitek’s primary founders, Ping Dongand Victor Ren, came from ESS Technology.Ren, who serves as Auvitek’s COO, was VPof marketing at ESS from 2002 to 2004.Before that, he was VP of sales and businessdevelopment at Stream Machine and,following Cirrus Logic’s acquisition of thatcompany, spent three years as VP of productmarketing at Cirrus. He was also presidentand CEO of Onward Electronics &Technology, which he founded as a jointventure company in China with the Ministryof Electronics Industry. Previous positionsinclude serving as a consultant with Xerox

Technology Venture/Terabank Systems,president and CEO of Vistro Computers,and director of advanced product planningand marketing at Ramtek.

Dong, Auvitek’s CEO, was Sr. VP ofcommunication engineering at ESSTechnology. He joined ESS via itsacquisition of OSEE Technology, which hefounded and where he served as CEO. Beforethat, he developed modem software forvideo conferencing systems at IntegratedInformation Technology (later 8X8).Earlier, he worked in Motorola’s Codex R/D group, where he focused on digitalcommunication, DSP algorithm R&D inhigh-speed modems, DSL, and wirelesscommunication.

In Sept. 2004, Auvitek closed a $4million first round of funding, led by KLMCapital Group, Storm Ventures andVenGlobal Capital.

Ten of Auvitek’s 35 employees developthe core technology in the U.S., with theremaining 25 engineers performingperipheral system-level design at its officein Shanghai, China.

TV tuners currently on the market areeither two separate tuners for analog anddigital, or a far more expensive multimediaanalog/digital tuner:

• Multimedia tuner for analog/digital —$12 to $15

• Analog tuner — $4 to $6

• Half tuner (digital) — < $4.

Auvitek integrated the entire analog and

digital receiving path into one chip, whichenables the use of the reduced-cost digitalhalf tuner for both digital and analog. Thecompany’s initial chip will sell for about$14, which the company says will savemanufacturers about $8 to $10, as they nolonger need to use separate tuners orexpensive multimedia tuners.

The company’s first products, theAU8501 and AU8502, are demodulators +analog TV decoders + BTSC decoders thatwill address the U.S. terrestrial ATSCmarket. Follow-on chips will address theEuropean and China markets. Auvitek willlaunch the 8501in Q3 2005.

Although most consumers use TVservices such as cable and satellite, the factthat governments around the world havemandated deadlines for digital TV meansthat every TV sold must eventually have abuilt-in terrestrial tuner (see Table 3). In theU.S., the FCC has implemented a staggeredschedule with varying deadlines betweenJuly 1, 2004, and July 1, 2007 (see Table 4).However, analog TV broadcasts willcontinue until 2010, providing Auvitek witha potentially huge opportunity for its ATSCchips.

For quick market entry, Auvitek istargeting the 8501, which has a built-in PCIbus, at PC add-on DTV peripherals.Multimedia PCs are growing in popularity,and they all have built-in TV tuner cards(currently analog, but digital tuners arecoming soon). Auvitek’s 8502, which doesnot have a PCI bus, is targeted at digital TVsand STBs.

Auvitek chose to address the terrestrialDTV market first as it is a more difficultproposition than cable or satellite, and farfewer companies are competing on theterrestrial side. In the future, Auvitek plansto expand its scope to address the largerDTV market.Contact:Auvitek International48461 Fremont Blvd.Fremont, CA 94538

Web: www.auvitek.com.

Note: Auvitek is in the process of moving, sono contact telephone number is available.Check the company's web site in summer2005 for updated contact information.

Country Year

U.S. 2007

Europe 2010

Japan 2011

China 2015

Table 4 -- FCC DTV Build-in Schedule

Table 3 -- MandatoryDTV Adoption

Product Schedule

Receivers with screen sizes 36 inches and above

50% of a responsible party’s units must include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2004; 100% of such units must include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2005.

Receivers with screen sizes 25 to 35 inches

50% of a responsible party’s units must include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2005; 100% of such units must include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2006.

Receivers with screen sizes 13 to 24 inches

100% of all such units must include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2007.

TV Interface Devices: DVD players/recorders, etc., that receive broadcast television signals

100% of all such units must include DTV tuners effective July 1, 2007.

May 2005


Siano Mobile Silicon

Founded in June 2004, Siano is thebrainchild of Alon Ironi and Hamutal Raab,the former CEO and COO, respectively, ofEmblaze Semiconductor. The 30-personstartup is developing an all-CMOS, multi-standard, multi-band integrated receiver forthe emerging mobile digital TV (MDTV)market.

When Zoran acquired EmblazeSemiconductor in 2004, Ironi and Raabbegan looking for their next venture.Discussions with Asian and Europeancontacts convinced them that MDTV wasgoing to be the next big thing in cell phones,so they organized a small team and came upwith a low-power and small-size architecturewell suited to this application.

Ironi serves as CEO, president and actingVP of marketing for Siano. In addition tohis previous role as CEO of EmblazeSemiconductor, Ironi has been Entrepreneurin Residence at Concord VC, GM of ZoranIsrael and VP of engineering at Zoran, wherehe was in charge of Zoran’s overallengineering activity worldwide.

Raab, who was COO at EmblazeSemiconductor, holds the same position atSirano. Previously, she was VP of operationsat Lenslet Labs, and VP of human resourcesat Zoran.

Sirano’s management team also includesLior Peleg as VP of R&D, Guy Shochet asCTO, and Amnon Harpak as chief engineer.

Peleg was a member of the team thatestablished Ethernet solutions providerMysticom, where he was director of ICengineering and product development. Priorto that, he held several design andmanagement positions at NationalSemiconductor.

Shochet was among the core team thatestablished Metalink, where he was VP ofthe Wireless Business Unit. Before that, hewas associate VP of R&D at Metalink and,earlier, was an R&D staff engineer with theCommunications Corps of the IDF.

Harpak was a co-founder of xDSLsolutions provider Savan Communication(acquired by Infineon in 2000), where hewas system engineering and application groupmanager as well as R&D manager. Prior toSavan, he was a leading hardware and system

engineer and a communications design expertat Nexus, Orckit and DSP Group.

Siano approached a number of VCs inspring 2004, once the company had somethingto show. Many felt that the market would notbe very big or would require too muchfunding. But Jerusalem Venture Partners(JVP) was hot on the idea from the beginning,helping Siano research the market anddevelop a comprehensive business plan. JVPprovided a Series A bridge loan, and Sianoadded Walden Israel and Star Ventures to theround and came up with $11.5 million.

Seeking to add a board member that hada lot of experience and exposure in thesemiconductor industry, Siano approachedformer Infineon Technologies CEO UlrichSchumacher in fall 2004. Schumacheraccepted the company’s offer, joining Ironiand the three VCs on Sirano’s board ofdirectors.

Siano is just about ready to tape out itsfirst chip, the SMS1000. While the companywaits for samples to arrive this summer, it iscontinuing with the design of the mass-production version, which is reduced insilicon area and power.

Siano says its key differentiator isdramatically lower power consumption. Thecompany moved several functions out ofthe RF domain and into the digital domain,for example, and the chip runs at a frequencythat is less than 50% that of its competitors.The company also integrated multiplestandards on one piece of silicon withoutpaying the penalty of additional area.

The company expects to be the first tohave a zero-IF RF tuner made in CMOS.Although a cost-effective and power-efficient way to convert an RF signal tobaseband, noise can be a problem in CMOSimplementations. Siano has patented certainmethods for dealing with this problem,enabling an entire solution based on CMOS.

Several different standards for mobileDTV are in place around the world. Theseinclude three primary open standardsdeveloped by industry associations andcompanies in the MDTV space:

• DMB (digital media broadcast), alreadydeployed in Korea;

• DVB-H (digital video broadcast —handheld) is the European standard;

• ISDB-T (integrated services digitalbroadcast - terrestrial) is the Japanesestandard.

The MDTV situation in China iscurrently unresolved. Two groups in Chinahave competing standards, both withdomestic semiconductor companies on theirrespective sides; Nokia is pushing to get alicense for DVB-H trials; and the largerKorean companies are applying pressureon China to allow them to go ahead with atrial for DMB. Although China will likelyhave at least one mobile digital TV serviceavailable in time for the Beijing 2008Olympic games, which standard and whenit will happen is still open. The possibilityexists that different standards will beimplemented in different provinces.

Startups competing in the mobile DTVmarket include Frontier Silicon andDiBcom. Frontier, a company best knownfor its digital audio broadcasting chips, hasDMB chips for the Korean market that havebeen designed into first-generation mobileTV products such as mobile phones andPDAs. The company is also addressingDVB-H, Europe’s mobile TV standard.

DiBcom, based in Palaiseau, France,has two initial ICs, one designed for high-speed environments such as automobiles,and one for portable applications that do notneed to move as fast.

In addition, an April 2005 press releasenamed a number of chip companies that arepublicly announcing support for DVB-H.These include the startups mentioned above,as well as Freescale, Intel, Microtune, S-Communications, TTPCom, and TexasInstruments, which introduced a chip forDVB-H and ISDB-T MDTV, code-named“Hollywood,” in Oct. 2004.

(See our profile of Frontier in the Jan.2005 issue of InsideChips.Ventures, andDiBcom in the April 2003 issue.)Contact:Siano Mobile Silicon6 Hagavish st.Poleg Industrial ParkP.O.Box 8684Netanya, 42507Israel

Tel: +972 (9) 8656993Fax: +972 (9) 8656994Web: www.siano-ms.com.


May 2005

ElectriPHY

ElectriPHY is a two-year-old startupdeveloping high-performance chips for theemerging VDSL market. The company’sproducts are optimized for “triple-play”services — voice, video and data — whiledelivering low power and cost.

Founded in April 2003, ElectriPHY has27 employees and about 10 consultants.Bay Partners and Lightspeed VenturePartners co-led the $9 million Series Around, and the company is in the process ofraising Series B funding.

The two co-founders, Jim Apfel andZhi-Yuan Guan, both have extensiveexperience in the modem industry. Apfelserves as executive VP of sales andmarketing and focuses on the business sideof the company, while CTO Guan heads upthe technical end.

Prior to ElectriPHY, Apfel developedskills in executive management, worldwidesales and marketing and new businessdevelopment at Aspex, Conexant, DiamondMultimedia and Element 14. He is active inthe industry standards committees, includingT1E1.4, ETSI and ITU-T.

Guan previously held development andmanagement positions at Digicom Systems,General Datacom, Philips Labs, TV/Comand High Speed Communications. He hasled the development of solutions for satellitemodems, DSP-based voice modems, ADSL,SHDSL, & VDSL chipsets and multiplemodulation schemes including QAM/QPSK/VSB/OFDM.

ElectriPHY brought in 32-year high-tech veteran Ray Farnham in Jan. 2005 tohead the company as president and CEO.Farnham most recently was the presidentand CEO of Precision I/O and, before that,president and CEO of IDS Software Systems(acquired by PDF Solutions in Sept. 2003).Earlier, he served as a director, chairman ofthe board, president and CEO of Hi/fn(which Farnham took public in 1998),executive VP of Integrated DeviceTechnology, and president and CEO ofOpti. From 1972 through 1993, he heldnumerous management positions at NationalSemiconductor, culminating with presidentof the Communication and ComputingGroup.

Mike Atkin and Jay Aggarwal round outElectriPHY’s management team as VP ofengineering and director of marketing,respectively.

Atkin joined ElectriPHY from LSILogic, where he was most recently VP ofengineering for the CommunicationsStandard Products Group, and prior to that,VP of ASIC customer engineering.Previously, he spent 19 years at NationalSemiconductor in various executive andproduct development management roles,most recently as VP of engineering for theInformation Appliance group.

Prior to ElectriPHY, Aggarwal heldvarious marketing and sales managementroles at semiconductor companies thatinclude Xilinx and Altera. He has more than15 years of general management, marketingand sales experience in semiconductors.

VDSL (very-high-speed DSL) is thenext-generation high-speed broadband-access technology that dramaticallyincreases data rates over current DSLcapabilities. ADSL, widely deployed in theinstalled base, provides 1 Mbps to 1.5 Mbpsof downstream performance. The latestADSL technology, ADSL2+, increasesbandwidth to 24 Mbps downstream and 3Mbps up, but is basically out of gas –performance cannot be substantiallyimproved from this point on.

The future therefore appears to belongto VDSL, which, in its initialimplementation, provides 52 Mbpsdownstream and 30 Mbps up. Telcos arevery excited about the technology, as itenables them to deliver triple-play voice,video and data and to finally compete withcable operators.

Service providers can distribute VDSLto customers in a number of ways. Forexample:

• Directly from the central office via long-reach copper connections;

• Fiber feed to a campus environment,with copper distribution throughout thecampus;

• Fiber to the node in a residentialenvironment, with copper distribution fromthe node to individual subscribers;

• Fiber to multi-tenant buildings, with

copper distribution throughout the structure.

VDSL is very heavily deployed in Japanand Korea, and is being rolled out now inChina, which is ElectriPHY’s initial focusmarket. Service providers will roll out VDSLin North America and Europe in 2006 and2007with the advent and implementation ofthe next generation, called VDSL2.Currently, providers such as SBCCommunications and Qwest are offeringVDSL in select areas.

ElectriPHY is focusing on providingsmall, low-cost and -power chips with highperformance, which are the factors mostimportant to carriers. The companydeveloped an architecture that delivers lessthan 1 W per port at full data rate, which thecompany claims is 40% to 50% less thancompetitive solutions. To reduce die size,ElectriPHY implemented a number ofsystem features on chip, which eliminatesthe need for equipment manufacturer andcarriers to put additional filters and discretecomponents on the board.

The company also developed internallya number of RISC machine functions thateliminated the need to license a processorcore from another company. This savedElectriPHY quite a bit of die size as well asthe economic burden of paying royalties.

Along with low power and die size,ElectriPHY is able to provide highperformance as a result of the firstimplementation of a technology calleddynamic spectrum management (DSM).DSM, which has been extensivelyresearched by John Cioffi at Stanford,analyzes the electrical environment to whicha given pair of wires is exposed. DSM looksat both the physical characteristics of theline (impedance) and, more importantly,the interference environment created byadjacent wires.

ElectriPHY developed algorithms forDSM that made possible the first practicalimplementation of the technology. Thesealgorithms enable the company to analyzethe electrical environment on a dynamicbasis and adjust the frequency spectrum tooptimize rate and reach. The result is that, atany given point in time, all subscribers areexperiencing the best possible spectrumutilization and bandwidth.

The company’s Phybrwire products

May 2005


consist of two chipsets: The four-port, four-band Phybrwire 400 VDSL chipset for thecentral office and the single-port Phybrwire100 VDSL for customer premise equipment.Both families are comprised of an advanceddigital transceiver (ADX) device and a high-precision analog front end (AFE). The chipsare VDSL in, Ethernet out.

Because the frequency spectrum usedfor transmission varies depending ongeography – North America has a bandplan, as does Japan, China, etc. – Phybrwireprovides a software-configurable band plan,enabling ElectriPHY to ship the sameproducts to a worldwide market.

ElectriPHY has sampled Phybrwire toseveral customers, and expects to haveVDSL2 products later this year.

The price for Phybrwire is $6.95 perport, which will be one of the company’smost attractive features. This price point forVDSL approaches ADSL2+ pricing, whichis about $6.50 per port, and is well belowcompeting VDSL solutions from theincumbents in this space, Ikanos andMetalink, at $12 to $15 per port.

ElectriPHY is promising a die size thatis one-third to one-quarter that of solutionsfrom Ikanos and Metalink at a giventechnology node. The company claims per-port power consumption that is one-half toone-third that of the incumbents.Contact:ElectriPHY3255-2 Scott BlvdSuite 104Santa Clara, CA 95054

Tel: 408 748-8000Fax: 408 748-8002Web: www.electriphy.com.

FineArch

Ken Ohta and Toshiyuki Kouchi, twoSOC designers formerly with MotorolaJapan Sendai Semiconductor Design Center(now Freescale Semiconductor Japan)launched FineArch in Feb. 2000 to developan original CPU and DSP for mobileentertainment devices. Unlike typicalJapanese semiconductor startups, whichoften ramp up business by providing designservices to OEM companies, FineArchimplemented an IP business model rightfrom the start.

FineArch is primarily targeting portable

music player applications that use the OggVorbis format, a new “license-free androyalty-free” compression format for digitalmusic players. Ogg Vorbis can providehigher sound quality and better compressionthan the MP3 format, but it requires morecomplex data processing than MP3,especially for the encoder/decoder function.The great benefit of Ogg Vorbis is that theformat is completely free, open, andunpatented.

(More information about Ogg Vorbiscan be found at www.xiph.org)

In July 2003, FineArch revealed its firstsystem-level IP product for Ogg Vorbis-based music players. The product consistsof hardware IP for silicon implementationand software IP (firmware) running on thehardware IP. The hardware IP is based onthe company’s proprietary “MultiCore”architecture, which integrates a 32-bitconfigurable RISC processor and a 32-bitVLIW DSP with SRAM, ROM andinterfacing functions, including SD cardand USB. Both the RISC processor andDSP are FinArch’s proprietary designs, forwhich the company has filed five patents.

FineArch had earlier tried to sell itssystem-level IP to major consumermanufacturers, but shifted its business modelfrom IP provider to fabless chip supplier inJan. 2005. At the same time, FineArchunveiled its first standard silicon product,the FS-500, which featured the company’sapplication firmware optimized for OggVorbis music players. The FS-500 integratesall the key functions required for musicplayers that support the Ogg Vorbis format,and the processing firmware is embeddedinto internal ROM. In addition to all thefunctions the company previouslyimplemented in its system-level IP, the FS-500 also integrates a delta-sigma D to Aconverter, which can drive D-class audioamplifiers. In addition to Ogg Vorbis, thechip can also decode MP3 and WAV signals.

Fabricated using Fujitsu’s 0.18-micronCMOS process, the FS-500 can decodeOgg Vorbis signals from multiple sourcesat a low clock rate of 8 MHz without externalSRAM, resulting in lower power dissipationand longer battery life — important factorsfor portable consumer electronics products.According to FineArch, a single U3 batterycan provide users with 38 hours of

continuous operation replaying musiccompressed in Ogg Vorbis. The FS-500also supports various sound-effect functions,such as equalization, echo, panning, andphase-shift stereophonic sound images(Virtual 3D).

FineArch is now sampling the FS-500 ina 144-pin LQFP package with the evaluationboard implemented as a complete OggVorbis music player design. The companyexpects to begin volume production of theFS-500 within the year in a 176-pin FPBGApackage. The volume production versionwill support additional formats, such asWMA, AAC, ADPCM and AC3.

FineArch is still a small-scale operation,employing fewer than 10 people under CEOOhta. However, the company was able toattract Shinichi Okamoto, formerly CTO ofSony Computer Entertainment (SCE), toserve as director of strategic businessdevelopment at FineArch. Okamoto was akey person at SCE, and is widely known andrespected in the worldwide electronicentertainment industry. He was responsiblefor developing SCE’s game-computingmachine, Play Station (PS), as well as PS-2and Play Station Portable (PSP). He wasalso involved in the recently announced“CELL” architecture jointly developed bySony, SCE, Toshiba and IBM. After leavingSCE in mid-2004, Okamoto has worked asan independent R&D consultant, and he isan advisory board member of PC peripheralsupplier Logitech.

FineArch has held two relatively smallfinancial rounds. The company has namedJapan Asia Investment Co. (JAIC) as one ofthe investors, although no other details areavailable. FineArch is currently holding itsSeries C round, and is aiming to raise another$2 million or $3 million.

FineArch has already announced plansfor two new products: The FS-300 is alower-cost version of FS-500, and the FS-700 is a high-end version. The FS-300 willsupport limited signal formats and interfacefunctions, while the FS-700 will support awide range of signal formats, includingMPEG4 and interfacing functions such asATA and USB 2.0.

We have heard that Ogg Vorbis is morepopular in Korea than in Japan. To succeedas a fabless semiconductor firm, FineArch


May 2005

will have to enhance its sales and marketingcapabilities in the Asian market.Contact:FineArch, Inc.Time-24 Building4W-2, 2-45, Aomi, Koto-kuTokyo 135-8073Japan

Tel:+81-3-5531-0373Fax:+81-3-5531-0205Web: www.finearch.com.

Ponté Solutions

Named after the Italian word for “bridge,”Ponté Solutions is building a bridge betweendesign and manufacturing by bringing model-based yield analysis into the design process.While yield has traditionally been the domainof IC manufacturing, Ponté believes yieldissues have become as much a design problemas a fab problem. The company’s technologyprovides visibility into these yield issuesright from the beginning, enabling designersto deal with problems that otherwise hauntthem at the manufacturing stage.

The company originally launched in Oct.2001 under the name “E-Z-CAD,” changingit to Ponté Solutions in April 2005. Pontéraised $10 million in Series A funding fromTelos Venture Partners, US Venture Partnersand Incubic.

Ponté has about 60 employees, about 50of whom are based in the company’sArmenia office. The company isheadquartered in Mountain View, Calif.,and has sales offices in France and Japan.

EDA veteran Alex Alexanian, whoserves as president and CEO, founded thecompany with CTO Ara Markosian and VPof engineering Sedrak Sargisian, Prior tofounding Ponté, Alexanian was president,CEO and founder of Mosaic Systems, aprovider of ultra-fast semiconductormemory solutions for high-end networkingand computing. Previously, he worked forseveral years as a member of consultingstaff at Cadence Design Systems, and hehas worked at several institutions in Armeniadoing research and engineering, buildingmainframes and programmable logiccontrollers for industrial automation.

Markosian previously held positions asdirector of engineering at Monterey DesignSystems and Aristo Technology. He wasalso the founder of Arset, acquired by Aristo,

acquired in turn by Monterey. Earlier,Markosian acquired design and engineeringexperience at Compass Design Automationand VLSI Technologies.

Prior to co-founding Ponté, Sargisianserved as director of engineering atMonterey Design Systems and AristoTechnology (acquired by Monterey).Previously, Sedrak held senior softwareengineering positions at Compass DesignAutomation, Intel, Mars/GEC IndustrialControl and Yerevan Physics Institute/JINR.

In April 2005, Ponté brought in NitinDeo to serve as senior VP of marketing.Deo previously spent six years at MagmaDesign Automation, where he served as VPof sales for Japan before assuming the roleof marketing and business developmentexecutive. Previously, he was VP ofmarketing at Moscape (acquired byMagma), VP of marketing at Mayasoft(acquired by E.piphany), and spent fouryears at Synopsys in various marketing andbusiness development roles. His IC designand applications experience includes severalyears at Fujitsu and Mitsubishi.

Arklin Kee, VP of business development,served as VP of sales and businessdevelopment for Gigascale IC. Previously,he worked for InTime Software as VP ofbusiness development, and for Cadence asVP of business development. He started hiscareer as a technical associate at BellTelephone Laboratories.

Ponté is not yet disclosing the details ofits first product, which will be launchedlater this year, but the company has begunrevealing the nature of its technology.

Traditional rules-based methodologies,says Ponté, are not able to provide sufficientvisibility into yield issues at sub-130-nmprocess nodes. The design-specific aspectis lost in these rules, which do not actuallydepict the specifics of nanometer propertiesand are completely design independent. It isnot unusual for two different designsfollowing the same rules to achievedramatically different yields.

Ponté’s vision is to supply tools that canprovide visibility at the design stage, helpingto analyze, predict and enhance yields earlyin the process. The company intends itstools to help drive down the cost of siliconby providing more predictable and better-

optimized processes that accelerate overalltime to volume production.

To implement this vision, Ponté isleveraging three core technologies: acomprehensive unified yield modelingplatform, which enables strong correlationwith fab results; high-capacity dataprocessing that can process billions ofnanometer structures overnight; and robustyield analysis technology that deliversdesign-content-specific analysis for variousrandom and systematic defects, enables“what-if” analysis, and is orders ofmagnitude faster than rule-based systems.

Because foundries are very protectiveof their IP, Ponté decided to work initiallywith IDMs, where design and fab are withinthe same company. Ponté’s strategy to getinto the foundries is to work through theircustomers. Although foundries are morechallenging, Ponté is addressing IPprotection issues with an encryptionmechanism that conceals process specificswhile still providing sufficient informationto designers for use in modeling, analysis,prediction and optimization.

Ponté’s first product will be a yield-analysis tool, which will provide designerswith yield visibility at different phases ofthe design flow. The company says theanalysis technology is the cornerstone onwhich it will build other products.

Many EDA companies are developingDFM and DFY solutions, although Ponté isunique in bringing statistical yield modelinginto the IC design flow. There is alsocompetition with advanced IDMs, such asIntel, IBM and several others, which haveinternal tools that tie together design andmanufacturing. Another set of competitorsapproach the problem either aftercompletion of the design, or aftermanufacturing prototypes. The good newsfor all of these companies is that DFM andDFY are so important, and the problems sogreat, that there is lots of room for differentproducts and approaches.Contact:Ponté Solutions2570 West El Camino RealSuite 250Mountain View, CA 94040

Tel: 650 559-9001Fax: 650 559-9244Web: www.Pontésolutions.com.

May 2005

InsideChips Ventures.Agreements and Marketing Alliances

Wavesat, CRC and C-DOT AddressFixed WiMAX For Rural Broadband

WiMAX silicon specialist Wavesat hasbegun working with India’s C-DOT andCanada’s Communications ResearchCentre Canada (CRC) to build a cost-effective fixed wireless access solutionbased on the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard.C-DOT is a telecom technology centre ofthe Government of India, and the CRC isthe Government of Canada’s primaryresearch facility into telecommunicationstechnologies.

C-DOT and CRC have taken steps toembark on the joint development of aMILTON (microwave-light organizednetwork)-based core broadband platformfor India, powered by Wavesat’s WiMAXsilicon chip technology.

Founded in 1993, Wavesat is a fablesssemiconductor company focused ondeveloping modem chips for WiMAX-compliant systems. The company isheadquartered in Montreal, Canada.Contacts:Vijay Madan, C-DOT executive director; Tel:

(011)26802856; www.cdot.com.Dr. Veena Rawat, CRC acting president; Tel:

(613) 998-2388; www.crc.ca/milton.Michel Guay, Wavesat president and CEO;

Tel: 514 684-0200; www.wavesat.com.

Freescale, Philips to DriveCommon FlexRay Technology

To help the drive toward a commonstandard for next-generation in-vehiclenetworks, Freescale Semiconductor andPhilips have agreed to share their FlexRaytechnologies. The agreement supports thedevelopment, availability and compatibilityof semiconductor-based FlexRay productsfrom Philips and Freescale.

FlexRay is a new networkcommunication system targeted specificallyat the next generation of automotiveapplications, or “by-wire” applications.FlexRay will enable next-generation, high-bandwidth control applications, includingpowertrain and body systems. It willultimately target by-wire solutions for activechassis management, braking systems andsteering.

Philips and Freescale, both founding

members of the FlexRay Consortium, willcombine their in-vehicle networkingexpertise and use a common FlexRayprotocol engine design and a commonSystem C-based reference software modelto ensure interoperability of their FlexRaydevices.

The shared FlexRay protocol enginedesign and the jointly developed executableprotocol model are now available for licensefrom Freescale. Philips and Freescale planto introduce additional FlexRay productsduring 2005. The first vehicles equippedwith networking capabilities based on theFlexRay protocol are anticipated in 2006.Contacts:Harry Inia, Philips Semiconductors VP and

GM of Automotive Business Line; Tel: 408434-3000;www.semiconductors.philips.com.

Paul Grimme, Freescale Sr. VP and GM ofautomotive business; Tel: 480 768-2130;www.freescale.com.

Lattice, Synplicity Ink Developmentand Marketing Agreement

Lattice Semiconductor and Synplicityhave signed a comprehensive developmentand marketing agreement to enhance andpromote Lattice FPGA device performancein Synplicity’s Synplify Pro FPGA synthesistool during the second half of 2005. Theagreement calls for significantenhancements, including register retiming,pipelining, and memory inferencing, tostrengthen support for Lattice FPGAs. TheSynplify Pro software currently supports allLattice digital programmable logic devices,including the new non-volatile LatticeXPFPGAs.

Synplify Pro software, Lattice-only,node-locked, supporting all Lattice digitalprogrammable devices, is currentlyavailable from Synplicity starting at$20,000.Contacts:Chris Fanning, Lattice VP of software; Tel:

503 268-8000; www.latticesemi.com.Joe Gianelli, Synplicity VP of business

development; Tel: 408 215-6000;www.synplicity.com.

National Licenses Gigabit EthernetPHY Core to Alliance

Alliance Semiconductor has licensedNational Semiconductor’s gigabit Ethernetphysical layer (PHY) core for use in its nextgeneration of networking devices.National’s gigabit Ethernet PHY core has afield-proven architecture that deliversgigabit-per-second performance, low powerconsumption, and enhanced testability. Thecore is a fully featured single-port EthernetPHY supporting 10BaseT, 100BaseTX and1000BaseT Ethernet protocols, enabling acost-effective migration path from existingfast Ethernet applications.Contact:Nirmal Saxena, Alliance CTO; Tel: 408 855-

4900; www.alsc.com.Mike Noonen, National VP of Interface

Group; Tel: 408 721-5000;www.national.com.

FlipChip, NEC Sign Cross-Licensing Agreement

FlipChip International and NECElectronics have entered into an extensivepatent cross-licensing agreement foradvanced wafer-level packaging, flip-chipbumping, solder-bump reinforcement andwafer applied underfill technologies. Aspart of the agreement, FlipChip will licenseits wafer-level packaging patents, includingUltra CSP, Polymer Collar, and Spheronproduct types, to NEC Electronics. NECwill license its redistribution wafer-levelpackaging, solder-bump reinforcement andwafer applied underfill patents to FlipChip.

Wafer level packaging, a process inwhich semiconductors are packaged on thewafer prior to dicing, offers significantadvantages in form factor and weight thatenable real chip-scale packaging (CSP).The two companies will apply theseadvanced packaging technologies to devicessuch as discrete components, logic, ASICs,microprocessors, flash memory and othernext-generation devices for applications inthe mobile phone, digital still camera,automotive, PDA and other emergingmarkets.Contact:Bob Forcier, FlipChip president and CEO;

Tel: 602 431-6020; www.flipchip.com.


May 2005

ASICs, IP and Design Services

Atrenta Unveils PredictiveDevelopment Solutions

EDA firm Atrenta has released a newline of 1Team EDA solutions. The 1Teamproduct family is a new kind of design-automation solution, called PredictiveDevelopment, which turns the expensiveand error-prone activity of systemdevelopment into a more predictable,manageable and reliable process.

Atrenta’s 1Team solutions augment,rather than replace, existing developmenttools. Added to customers’ establisheddesign flows, Atrenta solutions enhanceeach phase of the system development cycle,from initial planning through design andimplementation.

The first member of the family, 1TeamImplement, is a unified physical planning,design and implementation solution, fromarchitectural planning to RTL design toinitial placement. 1Team Implementincludes:

• Team:Architect — Predictive imple-mentation for IC architects; quickly evalu-ate design trade-offs such as timing andarea; optimize architectural hand-off to RTLdesign teams.

• Team:Create — Predictive implemen-tation for RTL designers. Create physicallyoptimized logic designs.

• Team:Construct — Predictive imple-mentation for IC physical implementationteams. Quickly validate timing and areaprojections and rapidly generate high-qual-ity initial floorplans.

Team Implement is available now.Atrenta will roll out additional 1Teamproducts in the coming months.

Atrenta launched in 2001 with itsSpyGlass Predictive Analysis technology,which enables designers to look ahead intothe design cycle and foresee downstreamproblems. The company has grown to 200people and achieved 66% averagecompounded growth for four straight years

(See our profile of Atrenta in the April2003 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)

Contact:Bernard Murphy, CTO; Tel: 408 453-3333;

www.atrenta.com.

ARM Licenses Processorsto Chipnuts Technology

Chipnuts Technology, a Shanghai,China-based IC design company haslicensed the ARM7TDMI processor andARM926EJ-S processor through the ARMFoundry Program. Chipnuts will design bothlow- and high-end power-efficientmultimedia chip sets based on the twoprocessors.

The Thumb® instruction set-integratedARM7TDMI processor provides anoptimized combination of performance,power and area characteristics. It is ideal forlow-end mobile handsets running multimediaapplications. The ARM926EJ-S processorincorporates ARM Jazelle® Javaacceleration technology, DSP instructionextensions and the memory management unit(MMU) to enable designers to developsystems with high performance and richapplication features. These capabilities arewell suited to the development of next-generation smart phones, PDAs andmultimedia decoding devices.Contacts:David Hu, chairman, Chipnuts CEO and

founder; Tel: +86-21-54561360;www.chipnuts.com.

Jun Tan, ARM China president; Tel: +86-10-82603570; www.arm.com.

Calypto Launches Industry’s FirstSequential Equivalence Checker

Calypto Design Systems has introducedits SLEC™ product family, which deliversdramatic improvement in IC functionalverification. SLEC offers design teamsincreased productivity, confidence andflexibility in making changes to meet theirIC power and performance goals.

The SLEC product family is the firstcommercially available platform that provesfunctional equivalence between two ICdesigns that contain differences in levels ofabstraction and sequential behavior. SLECcan verify designs with sequentialdifferences such as micro-architecturalchanges, state machine modifications,timing re-balancing, and interfacedifferences. The SLEC sequentialequivalence checking software is based ona patent-pending hybrid verificationtechnology that, unlike traditional

combinational equivalence checkers, cansupport designs with sequential differences.

The SLEC product family initiallyincludes two products: SLEC SYSTEMand SLEC RTL. SLEC SYSTEM is used bydesign teams to check that RTLimplementations match a system-leveldesign, while SLEC RTL checks functionalequivalence between two versions of anRTL design that have dramatically differentarchitectures and timing.

Pricing for SLEC products begins at$175,000 for a one-year floating license onLinux platforms.

(See our profile of Calypto in the March2005 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:Devadas Varma, CEO; Tel: 408 850-2300;

www.calypto.com.

Bluespec Adds Co-simulationto Its Cycle-Accurate Models

Bluespec, a developer of a behavioralsynthesis solution for control logic andcomplex datapaths, has added co-simulationcapabilities to its model-simulationtechnology. The addition of co-simulationenables hardware chip designers to useBluespec’s cycle-accurate models inSystemC or Verilog modeling environments,providing them with the flexibility toleverage accelerated models in the mostappropriate and preferred environment fora given stage in design.

Bluespec is a startup tackling theverification challenges associated withincreased design complexity. While somecompanies are attempting to improve theproductivity of the verification engineerthrough better testbenches, Bluespec istargeting the root cause of the problem byaddressing design complexity itself. Thecompany’s toolset elevates the level ofabstraction for designers while providingfull hardware synthesis down to RTL withoutcompromise to the quality of the RTL. Thecompany claims its tool reduces both designtime to verified netlist and design errors byup to 50%.

(See our profile of Bluespec in the March2004 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)Contact:George Harper, VP of marketing; Tel: 781

250-2200; www.bluespec.com.

May 2005

InsideChips Ventures.The Fast Track ... People & Organizations

Fujitsu Microelectronics AmericaNames New President and CEO

Fujitsu Microelectronics America(FMA) has named Kazuyuki Kawauchipresident and CEO. Kawauchi assumed hisnew post on April 1, the beginning of thecompany’s fiscal year. He replaces Kazuo“Ken” Iida, who becomes an advisor toFujitsu Microelectronics America and willremain in the United States for a year.

Kawauchi has held various managementpositions at Fujitsu and its affiliates. Beforejoining FMA, he was GM of Fujitsu’sTechnology Development Division of theElectronic Devices Group, where he was incharge of developing technologies andmethodologies for 90-nm devices. Beforethat, he was VP of Fujitsu’s designmethodology and infrastructure group,Worldwide System LSI Technology(WWSLT), headquartered in FujitsuMicroelectronics in the United States.Kawauchi first joined Fujitsu in 1978 as anLSI engineer in the CAD DevelopmentDivision.

Former Cadence Senior VPJoins picoChip as CEO

picoChip has appointed Guillaumed’Eyssautier to serve as the company’sCEO. d’Eyssautier joins picoChip fromCadence Design Systems, where he wassenior VP and GM EMEA. Prior to joiningCadence, he served as VP for EMEA atIBM Technology Group, which includedIBM Microelectronics. He also worked forConexant (Rockwell SemiconductorSystems) and GEC-Plessey Semi-conductors. His early career includedpositions at Philips Semiconductors,Signetics and Matra Harris Semiconductors.

Founded in 2000 and located in Bath,U.K., picoChip provides to equipmentmakers flexible wireless solutions thatminimize time to market, costs, and powerconsumption. At the heart of the company’soffering is a scalable, multi-processorbaseband IC that combines thecomputational density of a dedicated ASICwith the programmability of a traditionalhigh-end DSP.

(See our profile of picoChip in the Aug.2002 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)

Industry Veteran to Serveas President of Xilinx K.K.

Xilinx has promoted Hitoshi Yoshizawato president of the company’s Japansubsidiary, Xilinx, K.K., from his currentposition as director of sales for consumerand industrial market segments. He succeedsMotihiro Kitajima, who will continue aschairman of the board for Xilinx, K.K.

Prior to joining Xilinx, Yoshizawaserved in a variety of executive positionswith NEC from 1972 to 2003 in Japan andthe U.S. His most recent post was GM of theASIC business units for NEC Electronics.Previously, he held positions at NEC insemiconductor EDA development, ASICcustomer field support, and businessdevelopment within the ASIC andCommunication ASSP. Since April 2002,he ran ASIC business units as GM.

Kawasaki Microelectronics HiresNew President and CEO

Kawasaki Microelectronics has namedYukio Yamauchi as president and CEO.Yamauchi succeeds Susumu Hirano, whowill remain with K-Micro as a seniorexecutive advisor. Yamauchi, who has morethan 30 years of industry experience, mostrecently served as K-Micro’s CTO.

LogicVision Hires NewMarketing Director

Paul Scrivens has joined LogicVision asdirector of marketing for mixed-signal andETAccess products. Scrivens will report toStephen Pateras, senior director of corporateproduct marketing.

Scrivens has spent the last 20-plus yearsin the semiconductor test industryspecializing in mixed-signal testing. He wasa founder of mixed-signal ATE at LTX,becoming the VP and linear divisionmanager in 1980. He served as VP ofmarketing for Credence Systems’ mixed-signal product line, mixed-signal divisionmanager for the silicon design validationgroup at IMS, president of U.S. operationsat SZ Testsysteme, and sales and marketingmanager for Keithly instruments parametricsystems. Before joining the ATE industry,Scrivens was a mixed-signal design engineerand manager in the U.K.

TransChip Hires VP of Sales

TransChip, a developer of CMOScamera solutions for camera phones, hashired Ronen Avron as VP of sales. Avronjoined TransChip from Metalink, where hewas VP of worldwide sales. Prior to that, heserved as regional director of sales andbusiness development at Gilat SatelliteNetworks, where he was responsible for theAsia-Pacific region. Between 1995 and1999, Avron was based in Seoul, Korea,where he managed the Korean andTaiwanese offices of Rafael IAA and wasresponsible for sales, marketing andbusiness development. Earlier, he was salesand marketing manager for Asia Pacific atRND, part of the RAD Group.

(See our profile of TransChip in the July2002 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)

Silicon Image Appoints New CFO

Silicon Image has appointed Darrel Slackto the position of CFO. Slack most recentlyserved as CFO at CentilliumCommunications. Earlier, he heldinvestment-banking positions with CreditSuisse First Boston and Salomon SmithBarney, where he was responsible for avariety of technology securities underwritingsand M&A advisory engagements. Prior tothis, Slack spent 10 years with the U.S. AirForce, most recently as commander for theC-12 flight-training program.

Slack replaces CFO Bob Gargus, whoannounced his intention to leave thecompany in Aug. of 2004.

M2000 Names VPof Business Development

M2000, a Paris, France-based developerof reconfigurable semiconductor IP, hasnamed Ali Erdengiz VP of businessdevelopment. He will be based in thecompany’s Sunnyvale, Calif., office.

Erdengiz joins M2000 from Altera,where he was senior director of HardCopybusiness operations. Prior to that, he waswith Fujitsu Microelectronics America asdirector of its “Infotainment” (digitaltelevision, cable modem, and networking)product line, in charge of advancedsemiconductor development. He began his


May 2005

career in chip development with Thomson-CSF France (currently ST Microelectronics)before moving to Fairchild Semiconductorand National Semiconductor.

M2000 is developing state-of-the-artconfigurable logic technology for thereconfigurable SOC market.

Tower Taps Applied MaterialsVeteran for CEO Position

Tower Semiconductor has appointedRussell Ellwanger CEO of the company.Most recently, Ellwanger was group VP atApplied Materials Corporation. He hasserved as GM of Applied Global Services(AGS), GM of the CMP and ElectroplatingBusiness Group, co-GM of the Metrologyand Inspection Business Group and VP ofthe 300-mm Program Office. Ellwanger hasalso held executive positions at NovellusSystems and research & developmentmanagement positions at PhilipsSemiconductor.

Texas Instruments ExpandsRFID Management Team

Texas Instruments has expanded itsRFID management team with the additionof three new director positions. Thecompany has named Shawn Rogers directorof wireless commerce and Tag-it products;Mikael Ahlund director of RFID healthcare;and William Santini director of technologydevelopment.

Rogers is a founding member and chieftechnical editor of the High Speed BackplaneInitiative (HSBI) and a founding member ofthe Reduced Gigabit Media IndependentInterface (RGMII) Consortium. Since 1999,he has been a contributing member of theIEEE 802.3 Ethernet Standards group.

Ahlund began his career as a businessanalyst and planning manager at GeneralElectric and, during his 17 years at thecompany, also served as marketing andproduct-development manager and GM ofGE Medical’s ultrasound business. Mostrecently, he was a consultant to medicalequipment manufacturers.

Santini was previously director ofdevelopment for DSL client premiseequipment in the BroadbandCommunications Group at TexasInstruments. Before joining Texas

Instruments, he was VP of engineering atInterphase and EXFO (formerly GnubiCommunication), both of Dallas, Tex.

Silicon Laboratories PromotesWireless Veteran to Vice President

Silicon Laboratories has promoted DanRabinovitsj to VP of the company’s wirelessproducts group. Rabinovitsj is one of thefounding members of Silicon Laboratories’wireless team and has been serving in seniorleadership positions since the group’sinception. He replaces Ed Healy, who servedas VP of wireless products since the groupwas created and was one of the company’searliest contributors to the wireless business.Healy is leaving the company to take theposition of CEO at a non-competing startup.

Rabinovitsj joined Silicon Laboratoriesseven years ago and has been responsiblefor marketing, business development andnew product development across multipledesign groups. Prior to joining SiliconLaboratories, he was the director ofmarketing at Indesign, and also served asdirector of marketing for Oasis SiliconSystems and product marketing managerfor AMD.

eSilicon Taps Altera Execto Head Marketing

eSilicon, a supplier of custom ICs, hashired Hugh Durdan as VP of marketing.Durdan, a 25-year veteran of thesemiconductor industry, formerly served asVP of the CCI and Technical Servicesbusiness group at Altera, where he grewrevenue from $350 million to $550 millionin two years, booked more than $1 billionworth of design wins and spear-headedAltera’s expansion into the digital consumermarket. Prior to Altera, he served as VP andGM of the computer and consumer divisionsat LSI Logic, as well as various managementand engineering roles at Mylex and DigitalEquipment Corporation.

ESilicon is a pioneer of the new “fablessASIC” business model, in which thecompany serves as a kind of generalcontractor for semiconductor manu-facturing. The company basically managesthe details involved in producing workingsilicon, enabling its customers to focus ontheir design-related core competencies.

(See our profile of eSilicon in the Oct.2003 issue of InsideChips.Ventures.)

Bay Microsystems Adds NewExecutives to Management Team

Jeff Wolf has joined Bay Microsystemsas senior VP of marketing, and the companyalso named Gerry Jankauskas CTO.

Prior to joining Bay, Wolf was VP ofbusiness development at CPU Technology,a company delivering high-performanceembedded multiprocessing SOCs forgovernment and commercial applications.Prior to that, he was VP of worldwide salesand operations at Ubicom, and he served atLSI Logic for 16 years in a range ofmarketing and sales roles, including VP ofmarketing and VP and GM of Pan Asia.

Jankauskas has been serving as Bay’sVP of system architecture since 2003. Priorto Bay, he was chief architect at CratosNetworks and systems architect at 3Com(U.S. Robotics) Carrier Systems Group. Healso worked at GTE in systems anddevelopment engineering roles applyingcommercial networking equipment tomilitary applications.

Bay Microsystems developsprogrammable packet processors, softwareand network elements for high-performanceintelligent networks.

AGEIA Adds Two New Execsto Management Team

AGEIA Technologies has appointedstartup veteran Andy Keane to the post ofVP of marketing, and games professionalKathy Schoback to the position of VP ofcontent acquisition.

Keane has nearly 20 years of experiencein the hardware technology industry, holdingexecutive-level marketing positions atcompanies such as 3Dfx Interactive,Morphics Technologies, PMC-Sierra andQuantum Effect Devices.

Schoback currently serves as chairemeritus for the International GameDevelopers Association, and is a memberof the GDC advisory board. She has nearly15 years of experience in the gamingindustry, serving the majority of her careerat Sega of America and Eidos.


May 2005

Companies Mentioned in This Issue

AActrans Systems .............................................................. 7AGEIA Technologies ..................................................... 23Agere Systems ................................................................. 7AKER Technology Taiwan .............................................. 8Akustica ........................................................................... 6Alliance Semiconductor ................................................ 20ARM .............................................................................. 21ATMI ............................................................................... 8Atrenta ........................................................................... 21Auvitek International ..................................................... 15Avnet ................................................................................ 9BBay Microsystems ......................................................... 23Bluespec ........................................................................ 21CC-DOT ........................................................................... 20Calypto Design Systems ................................................ 21ChipMOS Technologies .................................................. 9Chipnuts Technology ..................................................... 21Ciclon Semiconductor Device ......................................... 7Cirrus Logic ..................................................................... 3Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC) ........ 20CyOptics .......................................................................... 6EeASIC .............................................................................. 5ElectriPHY .................................................................... 17Elixent .............................................................................. 5eSilicon .......................................................................... 23Exar .................................................................................. 5FFineArch ........................................................................ 18FlipChip International ................................................... 20Forward Concepts .......................................................... 10Freescale Semiconductor ............................................... 20Fujitsu Microelectronics America ................................. 22GGartner ........................................................................... 10GDA Technologies .......................................................... 9Golden Gate Capital ........................................................ 7HHytek Microsystems ........................................................ 3IIBM .................................................................................11IDC .................................................................................11In-Stat .............................................................................11Infineon Technologies ..................................................... 5

KKawasaki Microelectronics ........................................... 22Kisel Microelectronics .................................................... 8LLattice Semiconductor ................................................... 20LogicVision ................................................................... 22MM2000............................................................................ 22Memec ............................................................................. 9Morpho Technologies ...................................................... 7NNational Semiconductor ................................................ 20NEC Electronics ............................................................ 20Nortel ............................................................................... 5PPericom Semiconductor ................................................... 8Philips ............................................................................ 20picoChip ........................................................................ 22Ponté Solutions .............................................................. 19Provigent .......................................................................... 5RRambus ............................................................................ 9SSasken Communication Technologies ............................. 5Siano Mobile Silicon ................................................. 5, 16Silicon Image ............................................................. 3, 22Silicon Laboratories ...................................................... 23Silicon Optix .................................................................. 13Silicon Storage Technology (SST) .............................. 7, 8SiRF Technology ............................................................. 8Synplicity ....................................................................... 20TT-RAM ............................................................................. 8TAK Imaging ................................................................... 9TDK Semiconductor Corporation ................................... 7TeraChip .......................................................................... 6TeraVicta Technologies ................................................... 7Texas Instruments .......................................................... 23Tower Semiconductor .................................................... 23TransChip ...................................................................... 22TransDimension ............................................................. 12TriQuint Semiconductor .................................................. 6WWavesat .......................................................................... 20XX-EMI .............................................................................. 8Xelerated ......................................................................... 8Xilinx ............................................................................. 22

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