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