Ashvattha Semiconductor Secures Round of Funding From Comstellar Technologies to Revolutionize Wireless Chip Market.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 6, 2001

Wireless Convergence Company Develops Technology Enabling Integration

of Multiple RF Front-Ends on a Single Chip, Providing ''Zero Chip''

Bluetooth Functionality and Other Breakthroughs

Ashvattha Semiconductor, Inc., the provider of highly-integrated Radio Frequency (RF) chips for the wireless and handheld markets, today announced that it has secured a round of funding from Comstellar Technologies, Inc., and Redwood Ventures here.

The new round brings Ashvattha's combined funding to $4.5M.

After receiving initial seed funding, Ashvattha began ramping operations in January 2000. With this round of funding, it joins the rising group of communication technology stars in the Comstellar group of companies. Ashvattha has moved rapidly from initial concept and will be ready to provide a practical demonstration of its technology later this year.

The standard method of incorporating disparate wireless functionality like CDMA, TDMA, GSM, W-CDMA, GPS and Bluetooth into a single product is to implement each standard on a discrete module. To prevent radio interference between these separate modules, each module then must be isolated from any others incorporated into the same product. Since the necessary shielding adds weight, bulk, and cost to the product, this approach, while technically feasible, severely limits the marketability of these products.

By contrast, Ashvattha's unique technology, protected by multiple patents and trade secrets, effectively eliminates noise and cross-talk problems between separate RF circuits, allowing the integration of multiple systems on a single chip. Thus, new products designed with Ashvattha-enabled, multi-protocol wireless functionality will still meet the mainstream market expectation for form-factor, weight and cost.

"As the wireless market moves to reward the incorporation of more and more features into a single device, the advantages of Ashvattha's integration technology will become increasingly obvious to communications systems OEMs," said Raj Parekh, Comstellar Chairman and Chief Technical Officer. "The wireless arena is hungry for smaller form-factors, higher power efficiency, and lower costs. By achieving all these goals simultaneously, Ashvattha's revolutionary technology promises to become the dominant technology for future wireless applications."

"Comstellar is systematically helping the rapid growth of key disruptive technologies like those under development at Ashvattha," said Karim Walji, Managing Director of Comstellar. "Ashvattha's top-down approach to integration is fundamentally different from traditional approaches to analog design. By approaching RF design problems from a systems level instead of on a piecemeal basis, Ashvattha brings true System on Chip (SoC) levels of integration to the analog realm of functionality. Indeed, while others still wonder if it's even possible to solve the problems inherent in wireless convergence, Ashvattha has successful working silicon today. Ashvattha is truly the leader in providing highly integrated next generation wireless solutions, and is uniquely positioned to fill this market vacuum in the wireless industry."

Ashvattha was founded by the father-son technical team of Guruswami and Kartik Sridharan both highly experienced RF Integrated Circuit (IC) designers. Guruswami combines extensive system knowledge with a proven ability to create production-ready RF chips that ship in record time. His previous positions include, in India, Head of Communications at HAL and General Manager at RCL. In the United States, he has held senior positions in both the circuits and systems areas at Rockwell, and most recently, at Conexant. Kartik has extensive experience at Philips Research Labs in the Netherlands. Before joining Philips, he completed his B.S and M.S. degrees at Stanford University.

Ashvattha President Guruswami added, "I am thrilled to be a part of Comstellar's universe. With the operational resources and industry expertise of Comstellar, Ashvattha enjoys a unique opportunity to develop truly innovative wireless technology and products. A disruptive technology such as ours can reach its full potential only under the Comstellar umbrella, since it involves a complete break with long-established ways of thinking about and designing for RF functionality practiced within virtually all wireless companies today."

Based in Jacksonville, FL, Ashvattha is part of Comstellar's Components & Subsystems Group. Other members of the group include: Kromos Technology, a developer of next-generation DSP solutions; RealChip, a provider of system-on-chip (SoC) products for media-over-packet applications; Axcel Photonics, a provider of laser-pumped diodes; and other yet-to-be announced wireless and optical communications technology companies.

About Ashvattha Semiconductor, Inc.

Ashvattha Semiconductor is "The Wireless Convergence Company"(TM). Its technology is comprehensively designed to enable the integration of multiple disparate RF front ends on a single chip, with no compromise in the performance of the individual systems implemented. Ashvattha is currently applying its innovative circuit and system technology to both the 2.5 and 3.0 generations of cellular standards, creating the lowest power, highest performance and most functional RF front-ends in the wireless industry.

About Comstellar Technologies, Inc.

Comstellar Technologies, Inc. (www.comstellar.com) is the premier organization for architecting innovative companies that will develop core disruptive technologies to dramatically improve the capabilities of the communications network and drive the next generation of communications. Its founders have a proven record of leadership and expertise in the communications industry at companies such as Telcordia, IBM, Sun, StratumOne, and Cerent. Comstellar, with headquarters in New Jersey, Denver and California, has raised approximately $150 million in investment capital, led by Accel Partners and New Enterprise Associates. Redwood Ventures, the venture capital affiliate of Comstellar Technologies, is a separate fund financing the broader universe of communications companies developing innovative and emerging technologies. The current fund is organized as Redwood Ventures IV, LP.