Arteris Lays Foundation for Global Expansion, Names Industry Veteran Janac as CEO

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2005-- Arteris SA, a pioneering company providing Network on Chip (NoC) technology for on-chip communications in complex system-on-chips (SoCs), today announced it has named K. Charles Janac as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Janac, a seasoned veteran of the semiconductor industry with experience in growing early stage start-ups, starts immediately. He will be responsible for growing and establishing a strong global presence for the company that is pioneering the concept of NoC technology.

Alain Fanet, founder and initial CEO at Arteris, who spearheaded the NoC concept, will become the Chief Technology Officer and will continue to guide the company's product strategy, oversee the continued expansion of the company's innovation and intellectual property assets, and develop its worldwide industry alliances. Fanet will focus on maintaining Arteris on the leading edge of SoC communication technology and widening the scope of its NoC product offering to early adopters and with strategic partners.

"The timing is ideal to make this transition at Arteris. We have successfully launched the world's first NoC commercial offering, we have good customer engagements in process, and we believe the market is poised to begin adopting NoC technology in a significant way. Charlie has a strong track record of helping start-ups go to the next level, and many of the pieces are in place for him to do that for Arteris in short order," said Fanet. "His experience in working with companies of the size and nature of Arteris will be a great asset, and we look forward to him applying his proven abilities as a marketer, manager and visionary. Charlie's breadth of experience, both geographically and technically in industries directly related to Arteris, will allow him to hit the ground running and make an immediate impact."

Janac joins a strong management team already in place that has defined a unique technology position in the SoC design space, and the company has been recognized as one of "EE Times 60 Emerging Start-ups."

"This is an exciting time to be entering such a critical technology space, as companies are grappling with the challenges of 90nm and 65nm manufacturing issues, IP integration, and general price/performance issues around complex SoC development. Arteris' patented technology is a key enabler to meeting these challenges. Given the complexity of today's SoCs, it makes more sense to move information in the form of packets rather than bits. I believe that the Network on a Chip, NoC, approach will be the dominant flexible interconnect technology for on-chip communications within five years," Janac said. "I'm proud to be joining the prominent group of semiconductor and network industry veterans who founded Arteris and I am confident in the team's ability to execute against the vision and plan Alain has laid out for the company."

Janac's career spans 20 years and multiple industries including electronic design automation, semiconductor capital equipment, nano-technology, industrial polymers and venture capital. In the first decade of his career, he held various marketing and sales positions at Cadence Design Systems where he helped build it into one of the ten largest software companies in the world. He joined HLD Systems as president, shifting the company's focus from consulting services to IC floor planning software and building the management, distribution and customer support organizations. He then formed Smart Machines, manufacturer of semiconductor automation equipment and sold it to Brooks Automation. After a year as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Infinity Capital, a leading early-stage Venture Capital firm, where he consulted on Information Technology investment opportunities, he joined Nanomix as president and CEO helping build this start-up nano-technology company. Janac holds a BS and MS degree in Organic Chemistry from Tufts University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

About Arteris

Arteris, SA, provides Network on Chip solutions to transport and manage the on-chip communications within complex System-on-Chip (SoC) integrated circuits, increasing performance while enabling the most complex, IP-laden designs. It allows chip developers to implement efficient and high-performance Network-on-Chip (NoC) designs, overcoming limitations of traditional interconnect approaches such as layered or pipelined bus-based architectures. Arteris' technology is scaleable in terms of the number of IP blocks designers can network, as well as with silicon manufacturing process evolution. The NoC solutions are compatible with existing design flows and with IP interface standards.

The Paris-based company was founded by semiconductor industry veterans and is backed by an international set of venture capitalists. Arteris has raised more than $12 million in early funding from an international set of venture capitalists, including Crescendo Ventures, Techno Venture Management and Ventech. More information can be found at http://www.arteris.com.

Source: Arteris, SA