Pivotal gets new CEO; Integrated scores big bucks

Pivotal gets new CEO; Integrated scores big bucks
By Michael Santarini, with a contribution by Peter Clarke, EE Times
March 15, 1999 (4:56 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19990315S0004

Pivotal Technology Inc. intends to become the next star in the intellectual-property (IP) industry and by all indications it has a good start. The 22-employee analog and mixed-signal core company recently recruited K.C. Murphy, the former AMD and Cadence executive, as its new president and chief executive officer. It also received $4 million in financial backing from Mohr Davidow Ventures, noted for backing IP-Cinderella story Rambus.

Murphy said the company will be to the analog mixed-signal core space what ARM is to microprocessor and what Rambus is to memory IP.

"Whenever you see a presentation of system-on-chip, inevitably there are always four blocks: a microprocessor or controller, a memory subsystem, logic and an analog mixed-signal interface," Murphy said. "Up until now, the first three areas have pretty well been covered by core and EDA companies. The fourth area, which is by far the most difficult and is untapped, is where we a re going to play."

After leaving Cadence Design Systems two months ago, Murphy was encouraged by Rob Chaplinsky, general partner of Mohr Davidow, to look at Pivotal. "I knew I wanted to do something around SoC. I thought analog is the one territory in SoC where no one has a complete solution. Rob hooked me up with Pivotal and I was very impressed."

Murphy said the long-time design house turned core company in 1997. Pivotal offers portable and reusable analog and mixed-signal blocks for SoC-savvy communication companies using CMOS processes. The company's current forte is providing analog front-end cores, such as 10/100 Ethernet.

Murphy said Pivotal will use the venture money to build up its veteran engineering staff with the ultimate result of producing more cores positioned for Ethernet and XDSL.

Joseph Costello, former Cadence president and chief executive officer, now head of mechanical company Think3, thinks Murphy is the right man for Pivotal.

"K.C. was the best corporate strategy guy I ever met in the industry," Costello said. "He is extremely well suited for this CEO role because he has spent a lot of time on the semiconductor side and also has experience on the electronic design automation side. He was the guy that took responsibility for the VSI Alliance. This is a dynamite combination."

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Integrated Silicon Systems Ltd. (Belfast, Northern Ireland), a developer of DSP-related silicon intellectual property, recently received $5 million in first-round funding from Apax Partners and a second investor, Enterprise Equity, in return for a minority stake in the company.

James Doherty, chief executive officer of the company, said that prior to the latest investment, the company had received backing from Queen's University Belfast, the original source of its parameterized DSP technology, and a number of business "angels."

"We are not a typical startup company, as we have been trading profitably for a number of years. But now we need to m ove up a gear," Doherty said. He said the cash would be used to expand the company's engineering base in Belfast and its sales and marketing capability.

-Edited by Michael Santarini, with a contribution by Peter Clarke.