16 July 2003 Minneapolis, MN Lightwave -- MathStar, developer of high-speed silicon CMOS platform semiconductor chips called Field Programmable Object Arrays (FPOAs), has closed its latest round of financing, raising $6 million and bringing its total financing to $40 million. The funding will be used to manufacture and market a family of FPOA chips that are both faster (2 - 20 times faster) and less costly than conventional Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips, claim company representatives.
According to the company, FPOA solutions deliver the best combination of 1-GHz performance; low recurring costs; off-the-shelf programmability for quick time-to-market and no mask costs; and reduced design tool requirements. The technology is ideal for low to medium volume solution providers who want to use the latest process technologies but are unable to justify the high costs, high risks, and long lead times of ASIC development and who wish to avoid the high production costs and low performance associated with FPGA solutions. MathStar's FPOA platform is ideally suited for applications in the networking, communications, and DSP markets.
Since MathStar unveiled details of the FPOA chip architecture last month, the company has received significant interest from potential customers in networking, signal processing, aerospace, military, storage, computer and consumer markets, say company representatives. Design tools will be available in the third quarter of 2003 for customer evaluation, and product samples will be available in the fourth quarter.
As part of the terms of the offering, investors in the $6 million funding round may invest an additional $3.75 million as MathStar achieves certain near-term milestones. MathStar shareholders include institutional, venture, and individual investors.