Elixent, a leading reconfigurable semiconductor company, has announced from its English headquarters the first close of a new round of funding. It includes an investment from Panasonic Digital Concepts Center, the Silicon Valley based venture capital arm of Matsushita Electric Industrial, and Toshiba Corporation.
Existing investors 3i, GIMV and NIF Ventures also participated. The new investment round, which when complete will total $15M; will be used to broaden Elixent's sales through the development of complete application demonstration platforms for consumer OEMs.
The company's D-Fabrix reconfigurable algorithm processing (RAP) technology is claimed to cut chip development costs by enabling the same device to be used for multiple applications, without the size and power overheads of traditional programmable solutions.
This, says the UK company, is ideal for the growing convergence of consumer electronics devices because multiple applications like music players, PDA functions, video and still cameras, can be realised on the same chip.
"This latest round of funding demonstrates that reconfigurable technology will be an important component of future consumer electronic devices, and that Elixent is the leading supplier of this technology,” explained Kenn Lamb, CEO of Elixent. "The headstart gained from our HP roots has allowed us to deliver a production ready reconfigurable technology to our customers."
"We've worked with Elixent for two years now and this investment shows our ongoing commitment to the company and the system-on-chip technology we’ve developed together," added Yoshio Ooida, Executive Vice President, Toshiba Corporation Semiconductor Company. "Reconfigurable technology will play a key role in the next generation of consumer electronics. Our investment in Elixent demonstrates our high expectations of its technology and the market," said Dilip Sampath, Partner, Panasonic Digital Concepts Center.
In a further separate announcement Elixent has said it has licensed its semiconductor IP based on reconfigurable algorithm processing (RAP) technology, D-Fabrix, to Matsushita Electric Industrial to develop SoCs for consumer products.
The agreement establishes strategies for both companies that target advanced processes ranging from 130nm downward.