Former Intel Executives Launch New Semiconductor Startup; Developing Advanced Solutions for High-Speed Data Integrity - Primarion - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 7, 2000

Primarion, a semiconductor startup in Tempe, Monday announced that it raised $13 million in venture capital funding to develop advanced analog semiconductor solutions to solve the emerging high-speed data integrity crisis.

Primarion was founded by former senior executives from leading semiconductor companies such as Intel, VLSI, Sony, and Hughes, collectively representing over 100 years of high-speed analog and deep sub-micron digital semiconductor experience. Primarion is rapidly becoming the leading high-speed data integrity solution provider for very deep sub-micron processors.

APV Technology Partners of Menlo Park, Calif. and Koch Ventures Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. led the venture capital funding, with additional investment coming from an industry leading digital company as well as significant investment from industry leading analog supplier ON Semiconductor.

"Primarion is a new semiconductor company focused on developing advanced analog solutions for high-speed data integrity," said Bill Pohlman, Primarion's chairman of the board and chief technology officer. "As digital systems continue their relentless push to lower voltages, higher current, and increased performance, a data integrity crisis is occurring where issues like clock skew, lack of noise immunity and soft errors are becoming performance limiting barriers.

"Moore's Law is driving digital processors to a point where the toughest technical challenge is getting the results of their calculations to people accurately."

Primarion, collaborating with industry leaders at its design centers in the Los Angeles and Phoenix areas, is developing its ASIA technology, also known as Active Signal Integrity Architecture. ASIA technology addresses signal integrity in deep-sub-micron processor design.

Very Deep Sub-micron Microprocessors (VDSM) require much lower noise, much tighter tolerances, and better intra-chip noise isolation to achieve more MIPS and more BAUD.

The ASIA architecture supports processor digital designs with advanced tool sets giving system designers faster time to market, and design guidelines that allow for optimized interaction between the analog and digital system components, and products that interface with VDSMs.

The result may be up to 100 times system noise reduction, 100 times faster analog response to digital processor inputs and up to 50 percent performance improvement from a digital processor in a computer or communications system.

"In the past, digital systems and the analog chips that interface to them, could be developed independently by companies specializing in each technology," said Dan Clarke, Primarion's president and founder. "However, as digital chips shrink to 0.15 micron and below, high-speed data integrity will require the marriage of very deep sub-micron digital design with advanced analog design and process technology.

"With significant experience in both high-speed analog and deep, sub-micron digital processor designs, Primarion is in the unique position to become the leading provider to this emerging high-growth market."

As part of the ASIA technology development, Primarion will build a high-speed process development operation in Tempe. This facility will allow the company to build the foundation for advanced analog products and process technology for the next generation of digital and communications systems.

"Primarion's power, clock, and bus signal integrity contributions to CISC, RISC, graphics, communications and DSP processors will be as significant to performance increases over the next five years as cache memory evolution has been in the last five years," said Mike Eisele, Primarion's vice president of marketing. "Customizing signal integrity to each processor's specific design requirements will become an expected system design capability for maximizing system performance.

"Primarion's ASIA technology will meet this new requirement offering what may be the only viable signal integrity approach to increase MIPS and BAUD in Gigahertz processors. As a result, Primarion is rapidly becoming the leading high-speed data integrity solution provider for very deep sub-micron processors."

Primarion is a Phoenix area start-up founded on the principle of developing complete solutions for high-speed data integrity for deep sub-micron digital processors.

With founders and executives combining over 100 years of industry experience and a combination of deep sub-micron digital processor and high-speed analog design experience, Primarion is rapidly becoming the leading high-speed data integrity solution provider for very deep sub-micron processors. Primarion can be reached at Tel: 602/454-7205, and www.primarion.com.