Kilopass: Embedded One-Time Programmable Non-Volatile Memory IP, OTP NVM

Kilopass Announces Record Revenue For the Third Straight Year

Jmcleod — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:00:09 +0000

2011 Growth Fueled by New Multimedia SoC Design Wins in China, Japan, and Europe

Santa Clara, Calif., February 1, 2012 – Kilopass Technology Inc., a leading provider of semiconductor logic non-volatile memory (NVM) intellectual property (IP), today announced record revenue for the third straight year in 2011, posting the highest revenue in 2011 to date for the company. Driving this growth was increasing demand from multimedia SoC developers in Japan, China, and Europe for Kilopass’ NVM IP to provide tamper-resistant storage of digital rights management security keys and increasing adoption of Kilopass Gusto for embedded code storage for small form factor consumer products.

“Kilopass concluded another record year,” says Charlie Cheng, chief executive officer of Kilopass. “We saw significant revenue growth in 2011 from continuing adoption of Kilopass anti-fuse technology through licensing of our patents by integrated device manufacturers as well as an increase in new fabless licensees. These wins were for configuration storage in graphics processors and microcontrollers, wireless home baseband, image sensors, and 10Gb Ethernet devices; code storage for wireless connectivity, image sensors, and industrial lighting control SoCs; and analog trim for display drivers. We remain dominant in security key storage with new design wins in the set top box markets targeting emerging opportunities in China.”

2011 Milestones
One significant milestone occurring in 2011 was the signing of a major customer at the 28nm node that is developing an SoC for next generation high-volume gaming application. Other major achievements in 2011 included enablement of Kilopass NVM IP offerings on the TSMC 28HP High-K Metal Gate process; on the UMC 55nm to 130nm nodes with 28nm to follow; on the SMIC 55nm process; and on the 40nm node at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Kilopass successfully introduced Itera, the first many-time-programmable NVM IP with up to a megabit of capacity. The company also made headway in its legal proceedings against Sidense Corp. In February last year, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied a motion for delay in the jury trial, which is set for September 30th this year. In August last year, Kilopass received a favorable Markman Order in this U.S. District Court.

Outlook for 2012
In 2012, Kilopass will benefit from emerging demand being created by the new applications cited above. The company is in a unique position to take advantage of these opportunities by offering all of NVM IP to SoC designers at every major foundry in the world and on most of the process nodes for these foundries. Kilopass will also benefit from a strong financial position, which is sufficient to fund this growth and is managed by new CFO James Lindstrom, a seasoned Silicon Valley finance veteran.

About Kilopass
Kilopass Technology, Inc., a leading supplier of embedded NVM intellectual property, leverages standard logic CMOS processes to deliver one-time programmable (OTP) and many-time programmable (MTP) memory. With 58 patents granted or pending and more than 800,000 wafers shipped from a dozen foundries and Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs), Kilopass has more than 100 customers in applications ranging from storage of firmware and security codes to calibration data and other application-critical information. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, visit www.kilopass.com or email info@kilopass.com.

MEMS Sensors Drive NVM Demand in Real World

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:07:14 +0000

Today’s electronic systems have changed from isolated digital computing devices to systems that interface with the real world, whether it is interacting with a human or some mechanical system. In both cases the interface must respond to analog signals. In EDA industry publications one does not read much about micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), those devices that incorporate both electro-mechanical sensors and control electronics in one package, yet these chips are becoming more and more prevalent in just about everything from the automobile to the smart phone.

One’s car is likely to have more than a dozen of these sensors, and one’s phone has at least one if not more. Although the reliability of the MEMS element is very high, the A/D converter is subject to drift over time. For example I have a “check-engine coolant” sensor that is malfunctioning on my car right now and I suspect the analog-mixed signal circuit inside has drifted and not been compensated for. The advantage of using a Kilopass device, like XPM, for such functions is that it is field programmable thus allowing the chip maker to trim the device during final test and the device supplier to monitor component drift and trim the circuit as it wears over time.

Market research firm MarketsandMarkets expects the global market for sensors in consumer electronics to grow from $10 billion in 2009 to $22 billion in 2015 a compound average growth rate of 12.44% from 2010 to 2015 due to the increasing demand for sensors designed into automobiles, mobile phones, smart phones, game consoles, and laptops. Each of these sensors requires an analog to digital converter to transfer its sensory data to a digital processor for analysis. And each of A/D converters requires non-volatile memory storage for trim data to compensate for drift in these analog components.

For 2012, Power, Japan, and Packaging Represents Semiconductor Opportunity

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:05:48 +0000

As the world continues, into its fourth year of volatility and uncertainty, it’s interesting to ponder what’s in store for the semiconductor industry in 2012. I will let the industry analysts, financial advisors, and fellow CEOs deliberate the macro numbers, and focus instead on three specific predictions: Japan, power, and packaging. Semiconductor is the bed-rock of much of world’s GDP growth for the past fifty years. As such, it has been able to weather the four years of volatility and more-or-less track the global GDP growth. But portions of the semiconductor ecosystem have not kept up with the advances needed for the new business ahead. As such, they represent significant opportunities to be harvested in 2012.

First, 2012 may be the year that semiconductor puts power ahead of cost as the primary driver for business growth. Die cost is no longer the largest cost of product anymore as many customers are reporting packaging & testing representing half of the total cost. While process and SRAM scaling benefits in cost is diminishing at 20nm in absolute number and relative priority for complex SOCs, power savings is quite a different story. From the impoverished rural areas to the de-nuclearizing Japan and Germany, energy saving translates into immediate financial benefits to customers. Sounds a little too “apple pie”-ish? Yes, but don’t be surprised if the number one question asked by customer in 2012 is not the die area of the chip, but the power budget of the chip.

Speaking of nuclear energy & Fukushima, I am willing to bet 2012 will also mark the next dramatic change in Japanese semiconductor industry. Already fab-lite (at least on 40nm & below) and consolidated (Hitachi-Mitsubishi-NEC), the Japanese companies continue to search for a new formula for success. Toshiba will need scale to compete in flash, and Elpida needs a fundamental change. But it’s the SOC side that’s more complicated. Outside of top ten key designs, most of Japanese brands are actually designed oversea by ODMs, with globally sourced components. Without global market presence in mobile phone and cloud gears, Japan’s SOC business is narrowly defined as MCU and home infotainment. Even in these two sectors, the global footprint sees signs of fracturing. But Japanese companies have great technologies, and perhaps the most under-appreciated SOC teams in the world, highly experienced and under-utilized. 2012 should be the year that this value in unlocked and integrated into global marketing teams and foundry resources.

Lastly, 2012 will be the year packaging technologies deliver the much-hyped potential of re-partitioning yesterday’s SOC. Since this is an area that Kilopass is investing in, I will refrain from divulging too much. But from DRAM bandwidth to advanced I/O, the SOC’s of the 2011 suffer from poor partitioning, because integration has for he past 15 years resulted in the least expensive products. But that’s about to change, as smartphone & tablets have created packaging solutions to question our “integration” premise. Take DRAM as an example, Wide I/O DRAM using TSV packaging may become the first widely deployed TSV market, and begin the new era of re-partitioning. Most experts believe that Wide I/O DRAM delivers 10X performance/power compared to conventional DDR memories. This sure seems like enough incentives to make the copper pillar reliable and inexpensive. And with 512 of these TSV pillars, there are many other ways to use these I/Os for other re-partitioning.

So what do I think will come from each of the three predictions? I think for the power prediction the data-center market will lead the way with new, dramatically lower-power products. As for Japan, I think multi-national partnership involving Japanese SOC companies will result in blockbuster deals in 2012. Lastly, I believe packaging technologies driven by high-volume smartphones & tablets will result in new companies, new demarcation of today’s chip companies and their business.

Kilopass hires James Lindstrom as CFO

Jmcleod — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:00:55 +0000

Kilopass Technology Inc. said Tuesday it has hired James Lindstrom as its CFO. The Santa Clara-based company provides semiconductor logic non-volatile memory intellectual property.

For the complete article, click here.

Kilopass Names Semiconductor Industry Veteran James T. Lindstrom CFO

Jmcleod — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:03:34 +0000

Lindstrom Brings Kilopass 30 Years of High-Tech Finance Experience
Spanning Multinational Public Companies to High Tech Start-Ups

Santa Clara, Calif. – January 24, 2012 – Kilopass Technology Inc., a leading provider of semiconductor logic non-volatile memory (NVM) intellectual property (IP), today named James T. Lindstrom as the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO). His 30-years in high-tech corporate finance will help accelerate Kilopass’ growth into a high-valuation semiconductor company. He began his career in international finance at Fairchild Semiconductor and has driven the development and financing of many Silicon Valley companies, including: Cadence, C-Cube Microsystems, FormFactor, Trident Microsystems and eSilicon.

“Jim will make an invaluable contribution to the Kilopass executive management team,” said Charlie Cheng, president and CEO of Kilopass Technology Inc. “I know this from personal experience as he was my CFO directing financial operations and fund raising for Lexra, Inc. when I was CEO. Jim is incredibly well versed in the semiconductor industry having begun his career with Fairchild Semiconductor handling their U.S. and International financial operations. I couldn’t have asked for a better replacement for Cory Sindelar, who contributed significantly to setting Kilopass up for its next phase of growth, but is moving on to another opportunity. We wish him well.”

James T. Lindstrom led the IPOs of ECAD and Trident Microsystems and has an extensive understanding of mergers and acquisitions having played an integral role in the formation of Cadence Design Systems from ECAD and SDA Systems and the acquisition of Silicon Perspective by Cadence.

“It’s great to be working with Charlie once again,” said Lindstrom. “He’s has leveraged his broad experience acquired at Faraday and U.S. Venture Partners to direct Kilopass onto the path of growth and expansion that attracted me to this opportunity. I see a great future for Kilopass and I’m anxious to make my contribution to its success. Kilopass has a sound financial structure enabling Kilopass to grow in tough economic times. I will build on this structure to drive the company to its next level of expansion.”

Lindstrom is currently a member of the board of directors of Semtech Corporation serving on the company’s audit committee and nominating and governance committee. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and holds an MBA in Finance and Business Economics from the University of Southern California. He lives with his family in Sunol, California.

Predictions for 2012: Industry trends

Jmcleod — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:36:03 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I sent out a call for predictions related to EDA, IP and semiconductor industry companies. I received 24 predictions from 11 companies and I would like to thank all of them and the PR people who worked so hard to get them to me. I have divided the predictions into a number of categories: those related to industry trends, tools, ESL, IP and physical. As for myself, I will follow the Chinese proverb: a wise man once said nothing.

For the complete article, click here.

A Design Methodology for Building Process-Independent Hardmacro IP

Jmcleod — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:44:54 +0000

Rapidly migrating intellectual property (IP) from one foundry to another and from one process node to the next can be a challenging, but necessary, part of the business, especially if the IP is generated and delivered as hardmacro IP. That’s because hard IP or a GDSII netlist versus soft IP, RTL or gate-level netlist must be available for all major foundries and for a wide selection of process nodes at each foundry.

For the complete article click here.

Using Non-Volatile Memory to Reduce SoC Development Costs

Jmcleod — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:54:10 +0000

As system-on-chip design complexity rises at each successively smaller process nodes and the amount of mixed-signal circuits being incorporated on chip increases, non-recurring engineering costs (NRE) also rises. System architects are adopting design approaches to offset this rise in NRE. One is to combine the NRE for several chips into one design that can be configured into several different chips serving different applications. Another is to incorporate parameterization into SoC designs to compensate for the variability inherent in the analog mixed-signal circuit contained on chip.

For the complete article click here.

Kilopass and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Offerings Tackle Security Vulnerabilities in Mobile Device SoCs

Jmcleod — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:15:17 +0000

For the complete article click here.System-on-chip (SoC) designs targeting mobile, battery-powered consumer smartphones are incorporating more digital rights management access control and security functions to accommodate the growing use of smartphones for Internet access. According to an International Data Corp. forecast in August 2011, the number of mobile web users is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent between 2010 and 2015, bolstered by increasing smartphone penetration and sales of tablets like the iPad. The market research firm predicts that 472 million will ship worldwide this year and the shipment volume will double to just under 1 billion by 2015.[1]

For the complete article click here.

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Comparing Anti-fuse Non-Volatile Memory in 28nm High-K Metal Gate with other NVM Solutions

Jmcleod — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:04:35 +0000

Despite its many advantages, one function that continues to be difficult for on-chip integration is non-volatile memory (NVM) due to the challenges of embedded NVM technology scaling. With 28nm High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) semiconductor production ramping in 2012, system-on-chip (SoC) designers are presented with the silicon real estate and economic incentive to integrate more functionality on-chip, thus increasing the need for more embedded NVM. At smaller process geometries especially 28nm HKMG the hurdles to integrating NVM such as flash, pseudo flash and e-fuse are effectively overcome with an anti-fuse solution.

For the complete article click here.