Arteris, Inc. is a multinationaltechnology firm that develops the on-chip interconnect fabric technology used in System-on-Chip semiconductor designs for a variety of devices, particularly in mobile and consumer markets. The company specializes in the development and distribution of Network-on-Chip interconnect Intellectual Property solutions. It is best known for its flagship product, Arteris FlexNoC, which is used in more than 60 percent of mobile and wireless SoC designs. Arteris, Inc. is headquartered in Campbell, California. K. Charles Janac is the company’s President and CEO. In 2012, the Silicon ValleySan Jose Business Journal ranked Arteris as the 4th fastest-growing private company in Silicon Valley. Arteris has also been in the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing companies for two years running.
History
Arteris was founded in 2003 by Philippe Boucard and two other engineering executives who had worked together at T.Sqware, a startup that was acquired by Globespan. Company executives wished to address problems with existing monolithic bus and crossbar interconnect technologies, such as wire and routingcongestion, increased heat and power consumption, failed timing closure, and increased die area. The firm’s leadership sought and received venture capital totaling $44.1 million for the creation of its new technology from investors, including ARM Holdings, Crescendo Ventures, DoCoMo Capital, Qualcomm, Synopsys, TVM Capital, and Ventech. By 2006, Arteris developed the first commercially available NoC IP product, called NoC Solution, followed in 2009 by a more advanced product, FlexNoC. The products used “packetization and a distributed network of small interconnect elements to address congestion, timing, power and performance issues.” Arteris marketed FlexNoC as an improvement on traditional SoCs interconnect fabrics, citing its reduction in gate count by 30 percent, reduction of wires by 50 percent, and a more compact chip floor as compared to a functionally equivalenthybrid bus or crossbar. Designers of SoCs began to take advantage of the technology’s increased design efficiency, flexibility, and a significant reduction in production costs. By 2012, the company had over 40 semiconductor customers, including Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and LG Electronics, with 200 million SoCs being produced with Arteris IP. The company’s volume is projected to grow to over 1 billion units per year by 2015. In October 2013, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. acquired the FlexNoC network-on-chip product portfolio, but Arteris retained existing customer contracts and to continue licensing FlexNoC and modifying the source code for customer support. Qualcomm will provide engineering deliverables for the FlexNoC product line and updates to Arteris. Qualcomm does not maintain any ownership interest in Arteris. In February 2014, Arteris named Craig Forrest as Chief Technology Officer, Dave Parry as Vice President of Engineering, and Benoit de Lescure as Director of Application Engineering.
Licensees
Arteris claims to have had 117 licensees for its interconnect IP product since its inception in 2003. There are approximately 65 active customers who are publicly disclosed. These licensees include top-20 semiconductor makers Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Toshiba Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Renesas Electronics, Freescale Semiconductor and Marvell Technology Group, as well as systems and automotive companies like Mobileye. Arteris has also signed licenses with Chinese semiconductor companies including Baidu, HiSilicon, Actions Semiconductor, Allwinner, InfoTM, Ingenic, Leadcore, Nufront, RDA Semiconductor, Rockchip, Socle and Spreadtrum. Other publicly announced licensees of Arteris products include Altera, Core Logic, CSR, GCT, GUC, iC-Logic, LG, MegaChips, Movidius, MtekVision, NTT Electronics, Open-Silicon, Pixelworks, Renesas Electronics, Sckipio, Schneider, ST-Ericsson / Ericsson, and VIA Telecom.
Products
Arteris offers a number of Network-on-Chip products, including FlexNoC for high performance SoCs, the FlexLLI MIPI interchip link IP for connecting multiple chips and dies, and the FlexWay interconnect fabric for smaller SoCs. The firm’s technology is used in a variety of consumer electronics, including mobile phones and tablets, modems, gaming consoles, digital televisions, automotive systems, and other applications.
