Indian startup, Cosmic Circuits, ventures into analog IP

Currently developing analog IP for 130-nanometer manufacturing, Cosmic claimed its designs would result in smaller die size and lower power consumption than others, achieved by using advanced architectures and the effective use of silicon processes. Cosmos said it sees itself as a one-stop shop for all kinds of analog IP and plans to develop IP in mixed-signal and radio frequency technology.

“We expect to deliver out first analog IP by the year-end. The architecture has been frozen and implementation is about to start. The IP will go into a system-on-a-chip,” said Ganapathy Subramanian, chief executive officer of Cosmic Circuits Pvt. Ltd. (Bangalore, India).

Cosmic was started and funded by Subramanian along with a other engineers, some of whom were managing teams at Texas Instruments (India). Cosmos, with 30 staff now, claims it has working experience of analog design up to 5-GHz. It plans to build its business by IP development, rather than by providing design services, which many companies are doing in India. “We are capable of creating IPs ranging from low frequency circuits such as power management units to high frequency circuits such as RF type ones. We are now focused on power management circuits, general purpose ADCs, oscillators, high-speed interfaces and will take up RF circuits next year. Our silicon characterization lab will be operational in November and it will be capable of testing all IPs we develop.”

Cosmos is talking to a few potential customers for turnkey development of analog processors and will work from drawing up specifications to GDSII deliverym, but declined to disclose the names.

The company is targeting three types of customer; startups that need differentiated IP to make a difference in the market, foundries that want analog IPs to offer to their customers and digital SoC companies that want to add mixed-signal capabilities to their chips for differentiation, Subramanian said.

The startup is self-funding at present and plans to decide early in 2006 whether it is necessary to engage with venture funds that have expressed an interest in the company. “But we may choose not to take such funding, depending on how business turns out,” Subramanian added, saying that about $5 million may be raised next year, if needed.