NetSpeed Systems Accelerates SoC Innovation with Funding from Top-Tier Investors

NetSpeed's products make designing and developing systems-on-chips (SoCs) simpler and less expensive.

San Jose, California -- November 04, 2014 -- NetSpeed Systems Inc., the supplier of on-chip network IP that is transforming SoC design, today announced it has completed Series B financing with investments from Walden-Riverwood Ventures and Intel Capital. NetSpeed will use the funds to expand and support its rapidly growing community and user base worldwide, and to further invest in product development for its system-on-chip (SoC) design platform and advanced on-chip network intellectual property (IP) cores.

NetSpeed’s products make designing and developing chips simpler and less expensive. From cell phones to thermostats, from cars to digital signs, small, power-efficient chips are the hidden driver of our new digital economy. Demand for these chips, known collectively as systems on a chip or SoCs has exploded—but with this increased demand is increased pressure for shorter development cycles and more frequent and more specialized new products. Device manufacturers increasingly rely on IP cores, which are reusable units of logic, cell or chip layout design that may be licensed from another party, to help them rapidly deliver the features and functions needed for sophisticated applications.

“The ability to quickly and easily integrate IP from multiple sources is crucial for chip level innovation,” said Lip Bu Tan, co-founder of Walden-Riverwood Ventures, the firm leading the investment. Mr. Tan recently accepted a position as chairman of NetSpeed’s board of directors.

“NetSpeed is tackling some of the toughest SoC design challenges in a very innovative way,” said Tan. “The company uses machine learning and advanced networking algorithms in a highly automated fashion to provide the kind of scalable and correct-by-construction SoC design platform that leading edge companies need.“

NetSpeed has developed on-chip networking solutions that enable SoC architects to design, configure and simulate designs that are significantly smaller, faster and more power efficient in a fraction of the time normally required.

"The growing sophistication and power/performance requirements of SoC products are placing increasing demands on on-chip interconnect technology across the industry,” said Rani Borkar, corporate vice president of Intel and general manager of its Product Development Group. “Network-on-chip fabric technology needs to keep pace with the ramping needs of SoCs.” The Intel Capital investment was led by Director Dave Johnson.

NetSpeed is undergoing extraordinary growth, expanding its presence internationally and winning tier-one customers around the world. “This is an exciting time at NetSpeed. The market has shown tremendous interest in our products,” said Sundari Mitra, co-founder and CEO. “We hope to utilize these investments from top-tier investors and leading customers to further validate our products and achieve our vision for revolutionizing the way SoCs are developed.”

NetSpeed’s advanced on-chip network IP core, Orion, delivers scalable, high-performance, on-chip network solutions. Its Gemini product is the industry’s first high-performance, scalable, coherent on-chip network IP solution. Gemini supports all three levels of coherent traffic including cache coherent, I/O coherent, and non-coherent traffic in a single on-chip network. NetSpeed’s IP cores are configured and optimized using its NocStudio, an architecture exploration platform and design compiler. NocStudio provides a new level of automation in designing SoC interconnects from determining the most efficient topology, to automating optimization of on-chip network channels and buffers and routing for system level user specifications.

About Walden-Riverwood Ventures
Walden-Riverwood Ventures is a partnership between two successful VC firms, Walden International and Riverwood Capital. Walden International is a leading international venture capital firm that has been providing investors access to cross-border, IT opportunities with the advantage of an unrivaled Pan Asia network since 1987. The firm’s funds total over US$2 billion in committed capital. Riverwood Capital is a globally-focused private equity firm that invests in high-growth businesses in the technology and services industries, across a variety of verticals and geographies.

About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$11 billion in over 1,400 companies in 57 countries. In that timeframe, 209 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 363 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2013, Intel Capital invested US$333 million in 146 investments with approximately 49 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit http://www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

About NetSpeed Systems, Inc.
NetSpeed Systems provides scalable, coherent, on-chip network IPs to SoC designers for a wide range of markets from mobile to high-performance computing and networking. NetSpeed's on-chip network platform delivers significant time-to-market advantages through a system-level approach, a high level of user-driven automation and state-of-the-art algorithms. NetSpeed Systems was founded in 2011 and is led by seasoned executives from the semiconductor and networking industries. The company is funded by top-tier investors from Silicon Valley. It is based in San Jose, California and has additional research and development facilities in Asia. For more information, visit http://www.netspeedsystems.com.