Tensilica Strengthen its Focus on Audio, Video and Baseband DSP by Adding Mahesh Venkatraman As New VP of Marketing, Vertical Segments

Update: Cadence Completes Acquisition of Tensilica (Apr 24, 2013)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. USA – March 24, 2009 – Tensilica, Inc. today announced that it has added a key member to its executive team. Mahesh Venkatraman has joined Tensilica as vice president of marketing, vertical segments. In this new position, Venkatraman will report to company president and CEO, Jack Guedj, and is responsible for the marketing, strategic business development, and partnerships for audio, video, and baseband DSP (digital signal processing) vertical segments.

“We are achieving significant momentum in the audio, video and baseband communications vertical segments,” Guedj stated. ”Mahesh brings to Tensilica not only a strong background in wireless communications but also in audio and video signal processing.”

“Wireless technology for WANs (wide area networks) will follow LANs (local area networks) in their adoption of 4G MIMO/OFDM technologies, requiring a 10 to 100x increase in computational capabilities over 2G/3G solutions. This transition will drive the need for cores that can deliver substantially higher performance than traditional DSPs,” Venkatraman said. “Tensilica’s DPUs (Dataplane Processor Units) combine the benefits of a custom datapath pipeline with a programmable DSP, creating the right blend of performance and flexibility. I see Tensilica’s DPU cores becoming the de-facto complement to the general processor core.”

Venkatraman most recently was director of marketing, Consumer Networking, at Atheros Communications, where he was responsible for the retail and consumer wireless networking segments and the access point SoC product line. Prior to that, he was director of product marketing at Marvell, where he led the 802.11n marketing effort.

Prior to Marvell, he co-founded ComSilica/Athena a wireless LAN and mobile DTV silicon provider, which was acquired by Broadcom. As co-founder, he led the architecture effort for an 802.11abg baseband and MAC solution. He holds a PhD. in electrical and computer engineering from the State University of New York, Buffalo. He has published over 15 technical papers and trade journal articles and has been awarded two patents, with more pending.

About Tensilica

Tensilica, Inc. is the recognized leader in customizable dataplane processors. Dataplane Processor Units (DPUs) consist of performance intensive DSP (audio, video, imaging, and baseband signal processing) and embedded RISC processing functions (security, networking, and deeply embedded control). The automated design tools behind all of Tensilica’s application specific processor cores enable rapid customization to meet specific dataplane performance targets. Tensilica’s DSPs and processors power top tier semiconductor companies, innovative start-ups, and system OEMs for high-volume products including mobile phones, consumer electronics devices (including portable media players, digital TV, and broadband set top boxes), computers, and storage, networking and communications equipment. For more information on Tensilica’s patented benchmark-proven DPUs visit www.tensilica.com.