EETimes Silicon 60 List, updated to version 9.0
Written by Maciej Bajkowski   
Wednesday, 14 October 2009

One list we definitely have come to appreciate over the years is the EETimes Emerging Startups List. Every few months the list gets updated, and it just so happens that a few days ago it was updated to version 9.0. On occasion these updates are lackluster featuring few new emerging startups, however, just like last time around, this new list contains plenty of new additions. This time around new companies accounted for almost 30 percent of the list. Once again, California did rather well claiming 30 percent of the newly added companies; however, Europe also claimed a surprising 35 percent of the list. Several of the newly added companies will be familiar to regular ChipCrunch readers, but just in case a refresher is needed, we provided links to our previous coverage of these companies where applicable. The new additions are summarized below:

  • AutoESL Design Technologies Inc. (Cupertino, CA) – Is developing next generation High-Level Synthesis (HSL) technology. Current product is titled AutoPilot, and can synthesize designs written in C, C++, and SystemC.
  • Blue Wonder Communications GmbH (Dresden, Germany) – independent design house and a licensor of Long Term Evolution (LTE) Intellectual Property (IP), which is a next generation mobile standard.
  • Direct2Silicon Inc. (San Jose, CA) – provides software and IP that enables direct write e-beam lithography for System-on-Chip integrated circuits (SoCs). Direct write e-beam technology requires neither optical lithography nor masks, thus ought to be cheaper for small production runs according to the company.
  • Energy Micro A/S (Oslo, Norway) – is developing energy efficient microcontrollers based on modern microprocessor architectures. Current products are based on the ARM Cortex-M3 processor.
  • Everspin Technologies Inc. (Chandler, Ariz.) – spinoff from Freescale Semiconductor that specializes in Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) and integrated magnetic sensors.
  • Liquavista BV (Eindhoven, Netherlands) – is developing electronic screen technology based on the principles of Electrowetting. Electrowetting enables color displays that utilize significantly less battery power, and are currently targeted at electronic readers.
  • Netronome Systems Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA) – specializes in intelligent network flow processing using highly programmable network flow processors and acceleration cards targeted at enterprise-class communications products.
  • OneChip Photonics Inc. (Ottawa, Canada) – is developing and manufacturing low-cost, high-performance optical transceivers based on monolithic Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) in Indium Phosphide (InP) , with which the company is hoping to enable ubiquitous deployment of Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH).
  • Open Kernel Labs (Chicago, IL) – specializes in mobile phone virtualization solutions. To date, the OKL4 Microvisor has shipped in over 300 million phones worldwide.
  • Ozmo Devices Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) – is developing Wi-Fi compatible communication technologies target at battery-operated devices, with the intent of delivering cost-effective wireless personal area networks (WPAN) connectivity.
  • PolyIC GmbH & Co. KG (Fuerth, Germany) – is developing polymer electronic technology, in other words electrical conducting and semi conducting plastics, which the company hopes will usher in the age of ubiquitous printed electronics.
  • Powervation Ltd. (Limerick, Ireland) – specializes in digital power control circuits, an earlier this year introduced the company’s inaugural PV3002 power conversion chip. ChipCrunch coverage: 1, 2
  • Samplify Systems Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) – is developing mixed-signal ICs, that combine high performance analog circuits with advanced digital processing to create a new class of intelligent data converters for DSP systems, targeting the medical imagining, wireless, defense, and communications markets.
  • Semprius Inc. (Durham, NC) – is developing technology that enables the printing of high-performance semiconductors on a wider range of substrates. The company’s primary focus currently is high performance concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules for solar power generation. ChipCrunch coverage: 1
  • Tabula Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) – is working on software and hardware solutions that the company claims will replace current FPGA solutions and will speed up the adoption of programmable logic devices for what are traditionally ASIC based solutions.
  • Tiempo SA (Grenoble, France) – is developing IPs and EDA tools that enable the design of clock-less integrated circuits. The company’s current IP includes asynchronous microcontroller cores, microprocessors, as well as communication and sensor interfaces. 

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