ChipWrights Reaches $13 Million in Financing to Market Breakthrough Processor Technology; Technology Targets Mobile Imaging Applications.Business/Technology Editors NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2002 ChipWrights, Inc., a leader in digital signal processing See DSP. Digital Signal Processing - (DSP) Computer manipulation of analog signals (commonly sound or image) which have been converted to digital form (sampled). technology for mobile imaging applications, today announced it has completed an $8.7 million round of equity financing Equity Financing The act of raising money for company activities by selling common or preferred stock to individual or institutional investors. In return for the money paid, shareholders receive ownership interests in the corporation. . This new round brings the company's total funding to over $13 million. BancBoston Ventures led the round, which included a number of new investors such as New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. Partners Capital, and existing investors JPMorgan Partners and Techfarm. ChipWrights will use the new funding to support product delivery and rapid company growth. ChipWrights' patented digital signal processing (DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive ) architecture represents a quantum advance in the performance available to developers, enabling them to exploit the data level parallelism inherent in imaging applications. It is relevant for the fast growing digital camera and mobile communications markets, as well as other markets such as digital color copier and printers, video, and image servers and transcoders. It also applies to high performance signal processing See DSP. applications in the evolving telecom/datacom infrastructure. Characterized by the very high performance and programmable flexibility required to support applications such as MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). 4 encoding and JPEG JPEG in full Joint Photographic Experts Group Standard computer file format for storing graphic images in a compressed form for general use. JPEG images are compressed using a mathematical algorithm. 2000, and supporting the low cost and low power targets required for consumer products, the ChipWrights architecture is poised to enable OEMs to create compelling new mobile, visual communications products. "We are pleased to have secured new venture capital funding in this challenging economic climate," said Brian Fitzgerald Brian Fitzgerald (born March 1 1947) is an Irish Independent politician. He was a Labour Party Teachta Dála for Meath from 1992 to 1997. Previously a trade union official with SIPTU, Fitzgerald was elected to Dáil Éireann for Meath during the swing to Labour in the 1992 , President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , ChipWrights, Inc. "We formed this company to bring a new, application specific processor to market; one that meets the low power, low cost, and high performance demands of a new and evolving class of video intensive, battery powered digital devices. We are committed to helping OEMs develop innovative products that will keep them competitive under rapidly changing market and technology conditions." "ChipWrights' new processor architecture will be viewed as a strategic advantage by OEMs seeking more rapid and differentiated product development," said David Hunter David Hunter (July 21 1802 – February 2 1886) was a Union general in the American Civil War. He achieved fame by his unauthorized 1862 order (immediately rescinded) emancipating slaves in three Southern states and as the president of the military commission trying the , Venture Partner, BancBoston Ventures. "This architecture delivers a long-term value proposition, as we can expect more digital imaging opportunities will emerge and grow as bandwidth increases and analog applications, such as photography, migrate to digital formats." Seasoned Leadership ChipWrights has brought together a seasoned semiconductor industry management team that combines entrepreneurial drive with a wealth of experience -- from small company start-ups and `turn arounds' to large, multinational corporations
"ChipWrights has put together a strong management team that understands how to balance the inherent technology and business challenges unique to early-stage organizations," said William Parent, Director, BancBoston Ventures. "The ChipWrights team has the `in the trenches' expertise necessary for success in the fabless semiconductor industry." "The problem today is that manufacturers have been locked into designing products based on the limitations of general purpose DSPs and fixed algorithms," said Jeffrey Logan, Principal, JPMorgan Partners, L.L.C. "ChipWrights' solution unlocks those constraints to deliver the design flexibility that OEMs need to compete effectively. This approach enables customer-centric product design. The company also has the imagination and the muscle to adapt its technology for future product innovation." About ChipWrights Headquartered in Newton, MA, ChipWrights is a fabless semiconductor company A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices implemented on semiconductor chips. It achieves an advantage by outsourcing the fabrication of the devices to a specialized semiconductor manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry or "fab. specializing in the design, development, and marketing of a new class of fully programmable digital signal processing devices. ChipWrights is developing a fully programmable, low cost, low power, and very high performance DSP/RISC microcontroller for fast-growing digital imaging markets. Specific application areas include real time image capture/presentation and image transmission/network media infrastructure. ChipWrights will also provide a complete software development tool suite and hardware reference designs. Additional company information can be found at www.chipwrights.com. About ChipWrights' Investors ChipWrights' investment group includes some of the industry's most successful and respected organizations and individuals: BancBoston Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of FleetBoston Financial FleetBoston Financial was a Boston, Massachusetts-based bank created in 1999 by the merger of Fleet Financial Group and BankBoston. In 2004 it merged with Bank of America; all of its banks and branches were given the Bank of America logo. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : FBF FBF Forearm Blood Flow FBF Frankfurt Book Fair FBF Feedback Form FBF Frame by Frame (animation technique) FBF FleetBoston Financial Corporation (stock symbol) FBF Fundamental Baptist Fellowship ), provides early-stage venture capital to emerging growth companies in the technology, communications, and healthcare sectors. Its sister company, BancBoston Capital, provides later-stage equity for buyouts, recapitalization, and expansion of mid-sized companies. During its 42 years, BancBoston Ventures and its affiliates have invested over US$5 billion in more than 500 companies. Headquartered in Boston, the firm has global offices in Palo Alto Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , London, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, and Sao Paulo. Additional information on BancBoston Ventures is available at www.bancbostonventures.com. JPMorgan Partners (JPMP), formerly Chase Capital Partners, is a global partnership with over $30 billion under management. It is a leading provider of private equity and has closed over 1,800 individual transactions since its inception in 1984. JPMP has more than 160 investment professionals in eight offices throughout the world. JPMP's primary limited partner is JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the largest financial institutions in the US. For additional information, visit the JPMP website at www.jpmorganpartners.com. New England Partners Capital, a private equity investment firm with offices in Boston and Virginia, specializes in investing in emerging growth companies, including companies focused on technology infrastructure (both software and hardware), information technology services, networking and broadband communications, and medical technologies. Techfarm's mission is to identify innovative companies early in their corporate development and assist those companies in achieving their fullest potential. Techfarm offers a new model of partnership for technology start-ups by working with its portfolio companies to provide active managerial assistance and guidance where they need it. To that end, Techfarm believes that the combination of an enthusiastic entrepreneur, cutting edge technologies targeted towards a transitioning market, and the seasoned managerial and financial expertise of the Techfarm professionals greatly increases a company's probability of success. |
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