ChipCrunch - Semiconductor Startup and Emerging Technology Blog http://www.chipcrunch.com Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:12:37 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.chipcrunch.com/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png http://www.chipcrunch.com ChipCrunch - Semiconductor Startup and Emerging Technology Blog http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/Tabula.spacetime.architecture.for.programmable.logic.devices.html (http://www.tabula.com) The term spacetime usually makes one think about physics, relativity, mathematical models, or at the very list some very interesting science fiction stories - Isaac Asimov anyone? But in this case, we are talking about Tabula (http://www.tabula.com), a fabless semiconductor startup out of Santa Clara, California developing programmable logic devices. Founded in 2003, the company currently employs 100+ people and has over the last few years filed over 150 patents, of which over 80 have been granted. The company is backed by several top-tier venture capital firms and has raised a total of $74 million in Series C... Blogs - Startup Blurbs Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:54:54 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Industry.Squibs/Power.amplifier.wars.Gallium.Arsenide.vs.CMOS.html (http://www.anadigics.com)There is nothing more interesting than competing technologies pursuing the same end product or application. In the blue corner, founded in 1985 and weighting in at close to 70 patents, please welcome the heavy-weight Anadigics (http://www.anadigics.com) from the GaAs camp. In the opposite red corner, please welcome the feather-weight challengers Black Sand Technologies (Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/Black.Sand.Technologies.3G.CMOS.based.RF.power.amplifier.html) and VT Silicon (Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/VT.Silicon.world.s.first.4G.silicon-based.power.amplifier.html) from the CMOS camp. All right, the above might be somewhat playful and exaggerated, but this does not mean that a real fight pitting Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Power Amplifiers (PAs) vs. CMOS based PAs is not shaping up.... Blogs - Industry Squibs Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:56:39 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/2009.Top.Venture.Capital.Firms.for.Semiconductor.Startups.html You have a great idea for a semiconductor startup, you have written your business plan, reviewed it a million times, you’ve assembled your team, and everything is ready to go, all that is needed is this annoying thing called money. Who do you approach? If you are well off or have wealthy relatives that trust you at least to some degree, this might not be an issue. Similarly, if you have good connections in the venture capital community be it on the local or national level, you will be fine most likely as well. But for the rest of us,... Blogs - Startup Blurbs Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:47:16 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/2009.semiconductor.startup.acquisitions.html Putting together a complete list of acquisitions for an entire year is quite some work. Lucky for us, the guys over at PartnerUp (http://www.partnerup.com) did all the hard work, composing on their blog a Complete List of 2009 Web, Internet and Tech Acquisitions (http://startup.partnerup.com/2010/01/26/complete-list-of-all-2009-web-internet-and-tech-acquisitions/). So all we had to do is scan through their hard work in search of semiconductor company acquisitions. Given that 2009 was a rather lackluster year for mergers and acquisitions in general, it is not surprising that finding semiconductor startups on the list was slim pickings. Nevertheless, a few did manage to make... Blogs - Startup Blurbs Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:54:33 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/Semprius.moving.forward.and.collecting.the.money.html (http://www.semprius.com)We first wrote (Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/Semprius.in.the.money.html) about Semprius Inc. (http://www.semprius.com) back in 2007 when the company raised $4.1 million in Series A funding. Back then the company was busy working on its micro-transfer printing technology which allows the company to transfer transistors from a traditional substrate onto other surfaces such as glass or plastic. Back then we wondered, given all the commercialization options, which avenue Semprius would pursue and how successful it would be. Well, the last couple of years have shed some light on the company’s prospects. Semprius chose to initially focus on the production of low... Blogs - Startup Blurbs Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:06:36 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/Marseille.Networks.Quad-HD.and.virtual.tape-out.methodology.html (http://www.marseilleinc.com)Marseille Networks (http://www.marseilleinc.com), based out of Silicon Valley, CA is claiming a lot with their latest press release, but only partially reveals its hand. The company claims to have reinvented the fabless semiconductor development process through what it refers to as a virtual tape-out methodology. These claims become even more stunning, when one considers that, as pointed out (http://venturebeat.com/2010/01/06/marseille-networks-to-launch-new-video-chips-designed-with-cool-prototyping-tools/trackback/) by VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi, the company has a mere 20 employees and has raised a paltry, by semiconductor startup standards, $5 million in funding. Claims like these could be easily dismissed as wishful thinking on part of the company’s... Blogs - Startup Blurbs Sat, 09 Jan 2010 09:21:15 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Industry.Squibs/Kauffman.Foundation.on.new.job.creation.html It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to look through some of the research that the Kauffman Foundation (http://www.kauffman.org) has conducted recently, which is a real shame since these guys do indeed publish some very interesting reports. Back in 2007, we reviewed (Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/Kauffman.Foundation.on.the.road.to.an.entrepreneurial.economy.html) a rather lengthy report titled “On the Road to an Entrepreneurial Economy” which focused on policies the government should institute to promote innovative entrepreneurship. With the holiday season here and news on the semiconductor startup front rather on the slow side, we came across a rather short but relevant report (http://www.kauffman.org/uploadedFiles/where_will_the_jobs_come_from.pdf) that... Blogs - Industry Squibs Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:37:22 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Startup.Blurbs/Arteris.SoC.Interconnect.IP.and.Tools.html (http://www.arteris.com)The reports reiterating a VC winter for semiconductor startups just keep on coming, the latest one being from Gartner, discussed here (http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222000995). And yet, clever startups keep on beating the odds, by obtaining funding even given all this negative press. The latest of which is Arteris (http://www.arteris.com), an EDA startup specializing in providing SoC interconnect IP and tools, based on the company’s Network-on-Chip (NoC) architecture. Founded in 2003, with headquarters in San Jose, CA and an engineering design center in Paris, France, Arteris just completed a strategic investment round that netted the company $9.7 million in funding. The funding... Blogs - Startup Blurbs Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:09:34 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Industry.Squibs/Demos.on.Demand.for.EDA.products.html (http://www.demosondemand.com)Once in a while you run across an interesting web-site, that while probably not of too much use to those who are deeply familiar with a particular field, might be of quite some use to those in adjacent and related fields. Let’s face it, for most design engineers it is very difficult not to get pigeonholed. That is, we are very familiar with the particular tools that are required for us to perform our daily job, but our knowledge of tools that another horizontal group in the organization might be using is very limited. It becomes even worse when... Blogs - Industry Squibs Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:28:00 +0100 http://www.chipcrunch.com/Blogs/Industry.Squibs/WCA.What.s.Hot.and.What.s.Not.in.Mobility.html There are so many interesting conferences, symposia, and panel discussions that it is pity that one cannot attend them all. As such, it is always nice when someone who does attend an interesting event, takes the time to post of few highlight. Even better when a nice succinct trip report with some observations and commentary is provided. This time, the thanks go out to Mike Demler, and his The World is Analog (http://the-world-is-analog.blogspot.com/) blog for providing excellent coverage from the 10th Annual Wireless Communications Alliance (http://www.wca.org) (WCA) What’s Hot and What’s Not in Mobility 2009 investor panel discussion... Blogs - Industry Squibs Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:13:00 +0100