Transcript Document

Chipwrights – Modern
IC Design
Luis Diego Cabezas, Drew Harry,
Sharon Talbot
Introduction
Technical Information
I.
II.
II.
III.
IV.
I.
Design
Fabrication
Software
Development
Business
Background
I.
II.
II.
Funding History
Business Strategy
Marketing
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Prospective
Markets
Value Added
Cost Breakdown
Maketing/Sales
Team
Design
Differs from industry standards –
 Optimizes parallel activities with 8 logic units
 Basic components for video and audio –
codec done in software, which allows for
greater flexibility
 Utilizes a “vector processing” method
 Low power consumption
Fabrication
 Sent off to a “Foundry” – called a “Tape-out”
 On return, the chip is analyzed.
 If errors, some can be corrected on a surface
level – Others must be returned to the
company.
 Entire process takes several months – a
significant delay if many errors are found.
Software Development
Examples:
1.
Compilers, linkers, debuggers (Software Development
Kits).
2.
Developing software building blocks for quick
deployment.
3.
Complete consumer application development.
They currently are developing for several different
companies as demo models – allows them to
demonstrate the value of their product.
Introduction
Technical Information
I.
II.
II.
III.
IV.
I.
Design
Fabrication
Software
Development
Business
Background
I.
II.
II.
Funding History
Business Strategy
Marketing
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Prospective
Markets
Value Added
Cost Breakdown
Maketing/Sales
Team
Venture Capital
 11/99-2/00 Seed funding: $250k, COMDEX
 5/00 Round A: $4.5M, valued at $8.5M
 11/00 COMDEX, first simulated chip
 9/01 first tape-out
 11/01 Round B: $8M, valued at $13.5M
 11/01 first silicon chip (hard times for industry)
 9/02 second silicon chip, for digital cameras
 3/03 Round C: $18M, valued at $33M
 5/03 third silicon chip, cost reduction
 11/03 volume production
Business Strategy: Start-Up
Phase
 Market segment

High-performance, low-power, low-cost, multipurpose
chips. On the bleeding edge of hardware
 R&D


Chip design updated yearly, new applications sought
Transferable/compatible software development
 Sales/Marketing


Aggressive seeking of customers (Tokyo, US, Europe)
Goal: several major camera manufacturers
 Customer Relations


Close contact helps guide chip design
Technical support and documentation are paramount
Introduction
Technical Information
I.
II.
II.
III.
IV.
I.
Design
Fabrication
Software
Development
Business
Background
I.
II.
II.
Funding History
Business Strategy
Marketing
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Prospective
Markets
Value Added
Cost Breakdown
Maketing/Sales
Team
Prospective Markets
 50-100 Possible Customers
 Products with highly parallelizable tasks.
 Low Cost, Low Power, “High” Speed
 Growing segment with advent of distributed
media applications (with low power
consumption needs)




Cameras
Cellphones
iPod (+ video)
PDAs
Value Added vs. Custom
 Allows customers to focus on features
not hardware
 Software allows flexibility/upgrades –
better to not hardcode features
 Decreases development costs.
Designing new silicon chips is very
expensive. (~$2 million + 1 year @ 0.13
micron)
Sample Breakdown of Costs
 $200 retail price

$100 wholesale
 $25
labor, other parts of camera
 $75 chip cost


$65 other chips
$10 Chipwrights DSP
 50% margin on chip cost
Marketing/Sales Team
 Salesmen. Strategic level – who to go after and




how
Field Application Engineers. Actual engineers
who work with consumers to help with product
development pre/post sale.
Operations. Production management and
supply chain work.
Documentation. Website, product docs,
marketing materials, etc.
About 20 People