Phyworks tapes out first chip design; to launch products in Q1/2003
12 December 2002 -- Bristol, UK-based fabless semiconductor company Phyworks Ltd -- which is developing 10Gbit/s physical layer (PHY) ICs -- has taped out its first chip design (an electronic dispersion compensation) on schedule and has begun Series B Equity Round fundraising.
The IC design went to Taiwan's TSMC -- the world's largest silicon wafer foundry -- at the end of October for fabrication using its 0.13 micron CMOS process technology and is due back by the end of December, for evaluation by the end of January and formal launch at March's OFC 2003 event. A power consumption of just 0.5W is expected. A forward error correction chip is planned to be in foundry in March.
"Phyworks is looking forward to being the first company to market with products that significantly reduce the cost of 10Gbit/s optical deployment on existing metro, local area networks (LAN) and storage area networks (SAN) fibre infrastructures," said CEO Stephen King, former VP marketing and applications, Conexant Systems.
"When we launch our first products in Q1/2003, this next-generation technology will allow optical module vendors to dramatically improve the performance of their products, in terms of power consumption and transmission distance, while at the same time reduce size and cost." King claims that Phyworks' products will protect investment by delivering 10Gbit/s performance over existing 1 and 2.5Gbit/s infrastructure.
By designing higher-integration single-chip ICs using 0.13 micron CMOS silicon fabrication processes, Phyworks claims it can deliver this performance at a fraction of the cost and power consumption of competing solutions. Before the advent of 0.13 micron CMOS, silicon processes were not fast enough for the SONET specifications of 10Gbit/s data rates, says King.
Phyworks was founded in mid-2001 by the former management team of Microcosm Communications Ltd, which designed silicon-germanium ICs and was acquired by Conexant Systems in January 2000 for USD160m. This included CEO Stephen King and chief technology officer Nick Weiner, formerly director of engineering at Microcosm. The board includes non-executive directors:
-- Stan Boland, former CEO of Acorn Group Plc and founder, president and CEO of fabless semiconductor company Element14 (acquired by Broadcom Corp in November 2000 for USD641m); and
-- Gary Steele, who established the UK's first fabless chip company, Acapella, in 1990 and is founder and former CEO of Microcosm.
Phyworks employs over 30 people, mostly in R&D, and has sales and support offices in the USA and Japan.
The company raised over USD11m in seed and first-round funding in February 2002 for the development and production of its first samples, due out early in 2003. Phyworks is now beginning discussions with European-based venture capital funds to raise a further USD15m from a Series B Equity Round by Q3/2003. Existing investors, Atlas Venture, Add Partners and Prelude Ventures are intending to participate, says King.