Open-Silicon Partners With Silicon Catalyst

Accelerates Start-Ups Bringing Innovative Silicon Solutions to Market

MILPITAS, CA – September 08, 2015 - Open-Silicon, a system optimized ASIC solution provider, announced today a partnership with Silicon Catalyst, the world’s first incubator for semiconductor solution start-ups. Open-Silicon has joined forces with Silicon Catalyst to enable semiconductor start-ups to increase silicon innovation rates and pursue big ideas. New semiconductor start-ups face challenges including fierce competition for funding, expensive design costs, and complex processes for bringing new designs to market. Silicon Catalyst reduces these challenges by building a network of companies to provide start-ups with the funding, resources, and support they need to navigate the industry, build their business, and deliver innovative ideas to market.

Today’s environment favors start-ups who are nimble and leverage partnerships that enable the start-up to focus on their true differentiation without the need to build a large team for complex tasks that can be done well by others. Their success hinges on the careful selection of partners to execute chip hardware development and production.

Open-Silicon is uniquely equipped to address the needs of new silicon start-ups with its full turnkey specification-to-volume productionoffering with flexible ASIC engagement models. In addition, Open-Silicon’s innovations in reference IoT SoC platform and IP subsystems for applications requiring high memory throughput, combined with years of ASIC design and manufacturing experience provides a one stop shop for translating ideas into silicon. Utilizing lessons learned over the course of delivering 100M+ ASICs to date, Open-Silicon has valuable design and high volume production expertise and can ensure the delivery of quicker, cost-effective designs. By offering aggressive terms for Silicon Catalyst portfolio companies and allowing start-ups to focus on their unique differentiator, Open-Silicon provides a faster and more efficient path to silicon production.

Among the other companies in Silicon Catalyst’s semiconductor ecosystem are Synopsys (EDA & IP provider), Advantest (test equipment company), and TSMC (semiconductor foundry). Open-Silicon is eager to join the coalition to support semiconductor solution start-ups and offer expertise in every stage of chip design and manufacturing.

“Silicon Catalyst’s vision to reduce the cost of innovation for silicon start-ups is perfectly aligned with Open-Silicon’s goal of delivering silicon at optimized cost, performance, and reliability, thus making ASICs more affordable,” said Taher Madraswala, President and CEO of Open-Silicon.“Our job is to reduce the risk of trying something new so that start-ups can translate their ideas into real platforms.”

“Silicon Catalyst has quickly become the place to go for semiconductor start-ups. Our portfolio companies recognize the value in working closely with an ecosystem of leading companies and they look to us to create partnerships that offer needed capabilities under a framework that recognizes the challenges that they face,” said Dan Armbrust, CEO of Silicon Catalyst. “Semiconductor start-ups now have the opportunity to get to markets that seemed all but closed to them before.”

“The partnership between Silicon Catalyst and Open-Silicon enables my company to reach commercial product faster and with less risk,” said Lou Scalzo, CEO of ACP Semiconductors. “We are strategically aligned with an ecosystem of silicon experts encompassing tools, testing, production, and financing. This enables ACP’s team to focus on customer design wins.”

Silicon Catalyst and its partners believe this is one of the most exciting times to be innovating with semiconductors. Mega-trend opportunities in IoT, biotech, wearables, energy, transportation, and mobile will all have new semiconductor innovation at their core. These markets enable novel and valuable products that do not require leading-edge technologies and enormous R&D budgets. Reducing upfront costs creates start-ups that become much better investments and follow-on funding can go to true innovation and value creation. Silicon Catalyst is already experiencing renewed interest from angel, strategic, and venture investors as a result.

About Open-Silicon

Open-Silicon transforms ideas into system-optimized ASIC solutions within the time-to-market parameters desired by customers. The company enhances the value of customers’ products by innovating at every stage of design — architecture, logic, physical, system, software and IP — and then continues to partner to deliver fully tested silicon and platforms. Open-Silicon applies an open business model that enables the company to uniquely choose best-in-industry IP, design methodologies, tools, software, packaging, manufacturing and test capabilities. The company has partnered with over 150 companies ranging from large semiconductor and systems manufacturers to high-profile start-ups, and has successfully completed 300 designs and shipped over 100 million ASICs to date. Privately-held, Open-Silicon employs over 250 people in Silicon Valley and around the world. www.open-silicon.com