Montalvo, chip development is expensive

We wrote about Montalvo about a couple months, at which point the company raised a total of $73 million in funding and we were looking forward for it to emerge from stealth-mode and reveal more information about their upcoming low-power x86 processor. A couple of patent applications that we ran across gave us a small glimpse about what the company might be up to but nothing substantial. Now it seems, that there is a possibility that we may never find out, for VentureBeat.com is reporting that Montalvo Systems is very close to running out of money and possibly shutting down altogether. According to their post, the company has grown to over 300 people between Santa Clara and India, and as such began burning through the raised money at a very fast rate. One thing is for certain, developing an x86 chip be it lower-power or even something less complicated that the latest Intel and AMD offerings is not an simple matter. It requires plenty of time and as such money as well, both of which many startups and established companies often times underestimate. VentureBeat.com found that the Montalvo has been shopping around for an additional $100 million but has so far come up empty handed. There have not been any updates or announcements on Montalvo’s website since the last time we checked it, so no final conclusions can be made. However, should things not work out for Montalvo, those not happy with the regular x86 providers have another alternative to fall back onto, namely Centaur Technology. While not exactly a startup, Centaur has been operating a small team out of Austin, TX as an independent subsidiary of VIA over the last few years and has just recently revealed information about the upcoming low-power Isaiah architecture.