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Open-Silicon

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Open-Silicon
IndustryFabless semiconductor company
Founded2003
HeadquartersMilpitas, California, USA
Key people
Dr. Naveed Sherwani, President and CEO
ProductsASICs
Number of employees
135 as of 2009
Websitewww.open-silicon.com

Open-Silicon is a fabless semiconductor company which develops fully custom silicon devices for customers in all markets using open market foundries, packaging, test, and IP.

Corporate history

Open-Silicon was founded in 2003. Founder Dr. Naveed Sherwani's idea was to select best-in-class technology from the open market and apply it through an engineering process focused on three goals: low cost, high schedule predictability, and high reliability.

Initial funding was provided by Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and InterWest Partners.[1] Additional funding from those partners, and new partners Artis Capital and Bridgescale Partners, brought the total venture funding in four rounds of financing to almost $46M. In December 2007 Unicorn Investment Bank acquired 75% of Open-Silicon for $190M.[2] As a result, the company is no longer venture funded and the board of directors has evolved including the addition of long-time industry veteran Chris King.[3]

In May 2007, Open-Silicon acquired Zenasis Technologies.[4] This technology has enabled Open-Silicon to build some of the fastest processors in the ASIC world.[5] In addition, this technology has been expanded by Open-Silicon to focus on low power design and process variability management.[6]

In 2008 and 2009, Open-Silicon received the "Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company" Award from the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA).[7][8]

Locations

Open-Silicon has principle locations in Milpitas, CA, Bangalore, India, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Industry Impact

Open-Silicon has been instrumental in establishing a new semiconductor segment known as the Fabless ASIC market. Core to the company is the OpenMODEL, which allows customers to view and make decisions about their ASIC supply chain. In the five years from 2003-2008, Open-Silicon has completed more than 100 designs.[9]

Products and services

Open-Silicon's business model is called the OpenMODEL.[10] The OpenMODEL gives customers the option of selecting their IP from the open market, with Open-Silicon qualifying and supporting that IP. In addition to IP, Open-Silicon has relationships with multiple foundries and test and packaging suppliers to maximize customer flexibility.

As part of the OpenMODEL, Open-Silicon offers a variety of IC design and manufacturing services, including product definition, design engineering, wafer fabrication, packaging and assembly, and test engineering. The company offers ASIC products at 180 nm, 130 nm, 90 nm, 65 nm and 45/40 nm CMOS process nodes from multiple silicon foundries[11] including TSMC[12], SMIC, and Samsung. IP partners include almost all major open market sources. Open-Silicon was the first adopter of Synopsys's IP OEM Partner Program.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Open-Silicon Inc. Secures $19.5 Million in Funding". March 29, 2004.
  2. ^ "Bahrain Bank Buys Stake in Open-Silicon". December 24, 2007.
  3. ^ "Chris King Joins Board of Directors of Open-Silicon, Inc". July 8, 2008.
  4. ^ "Open-Silicon Acquires Zenasis Hybrid Optimization Technology". May 7, 2007.
  5. ^ "Open-Silicon Study on High-Speed MIPS32 24K Implementation". May 7, 2007.
  6. ^ "When an ASIC Vendor Partners with an EDA Vendor: A New Model". November 12, 2008.
  7. ^ "Global Semiconductor Alliance Announces its 2008 Award Recipients". December 15, 2008.
  8. ^ "Global Semiconductor Alliance Announces its 2009 Award Recipients". December 14, 2009.
  9. ^ "Open-Silicon, Inc. Announces 100th Design Tapeout". September 10, 2008.
  10. ^ "Open-Silicon Thriving and Hiring in Downturn". January 12, 2009.
  11. ^ "Open-Silicon Partners".
  12. ^ "Open-Silicon joins TSMC's Design Center Alliance". August 26, 2005.
  13. ^ "Synopsys Unveils IP OEM Partner Program with Arrow Electronics, Global Unichip and Open-Silicon". November 20, 2008.