ChipCrunch.com

As of late we have seen a slew of startups that focus on finding digital implementations of what are typically considered analog problems. Examples include Blacksand Technologies and digital amplifiers, Bitwave Semiconductor and programmable transceivers, and WiSpry’s tunable radio frequency (RF) technology. The reasons for this are many: analog circuits are tricky to design, significantly affected by variation and noise, often time difficult to integrate together with other digital circuits especially on the same die, and most likely require special process rules. Last but not least, there a lot fewer analog designers these days than digital designers and finding a really good one can be a challenge in itself.  As such, with price-point and low power operation being the dominant factors in the market currently, digital implementations become more preferable.

With this in mind, Powervation, a fabless semiconductor startup based out of Limerick, Ireland, has chosen to specialize in digital power control. The company was founded in 2006 and is being backed by Scottish Equity Partners, Intel Capital, Venture Tech Alliance, 4th Level Partners and Enterprise Ireland. The company is currently touting a technology that it calls Auto-Control, which is essentially a digital algorithm for DC/DC control circuits. It enables these circuits to sense different conditions such as load, capacitance, and inductance and optimizes the power-control function to compensate accordingly. The digital algorithm replaces the analog compensation loops that were traditionally required to stabilize voltage conversion and transient response. Powervation’s first product, dubbed the Plug-and-Power controller is aimed at power converter solutions in several different spaces. It is expected to become available later this quarter. While the company reveals little about the digital algorithm or its actual implementation, Peter Cark’s column over at EETimes Europe suggests that the initial results looks quite promising. Overall system efficiency gains of up to 30 percent can be expected with a 65 percent reduction in component count when compared with analog implementations.

We wrote about Movidia in October of last year, when they posted a little introductory video about themselves on their website. Since the company target the mobile space and multimedia editing on the go, we speculated that we should either expect a low-power multi-core architecture, or a Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) vector processor. Even though the company has officially launched the MA1110 multimedia processor, given this press release, we are still not much wiser as to what the MA1110 actually looks likes. Other than touting features that the MA1110 supports, such as real-time image stabilization, super resolution zoom, slow motion, and color matching, the press release reveals absolutely nothing about the chip architecture. Richard Wilson, in his column over at ElectronicsWeekly.com, was able to obtain a few additional details: the chip is produced in 65nm, contains a 32-bit RISC core, and has a novel bus architecture that allows for a high level of data throughput. This however will have to do for now, at least until Movidia demonstrates the MA1110 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in mid February. Consumer samples of the chip are expected to become available later this Summer.

As of late the news on the semiconductor startup from has been sort of slow. This ought to be expected given the lackluster economy which this year has inherited. When funding gets hard to obtain and revenues and profits tumble, companies large and small must find creative ways to weather the storm. Some  companies resort to restructuring, also known as cost-cutting and efficiency improvements through layoffs - at least this seems to be the usual Wall Street interpretation upon which the company’s stock might rally, or at  least that is what the expensive PR firm most likely promised the company.  Another trick often used by companies in tough times is to divert media attention from the company’s or the industry’s real problems, by appointing a new CEO – seemingly the strategy recently chosen by Cadence. When it comes to startups however, the choices are a especially complicated. Money tends to be very limited and if no more can be obtained the game is pretty much over. Laying off staff might be an option but will most likely only prolong the end unless an economic turnaround occurs in the near-term. So what other options might be on the table? Well, Cassimir Medford over at the Red Herring, posted a Startup’s Recession Survival Guide to adress just that problem. But don’t expect to find any magic bullets, but rather more of the same, get lean, stay focused, get ready to be acquired, and hope that the recession does not last too long. The article has a few more pointers here and there, but as stated before, no magic elixir here.

Zilker Labs, a fabless semiconductor startup out of Austin, Texas specializing in digital power integrated circuits announced a couple days ago that a definitive agreement has been signed for the company to be acquired by Intersil. This acquisition comes only five years after the company was founded in 2003. It would be an interesting to examine at what average age semiconductor startups get acquired – maybe when I get some spare time.

Zilker Labs introduced their first product, the ZL2005 Step-Down DC-DC Controller in October 2005. From 2006 through 2008 the company introduced several more integrated DC-DC converters and controllers. The company’s main advantage lay in patents which allowed for designs with efficiency levels in excess of ninety percent. Additionally, Zilker Labs integrated power management functions into their power conversion products, thus reducing the required component count by about sixty percent. While the acquisition amount was not disclosed, the firms that funded the company, namely Sevin Rose Funds, North Bridge Venture Partners, and H.I.G.  Ventures probably made out pretty well on the deal given the relatively quick acquisition. On the acquiring company’s side, Intersil has been on an acquisition spree. In the past five month the company has also acquired D2Audio and Kenet Inc., specializing in intelligent digital amplifiers and FemtoCharge technology, respectively.