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MicroUnity

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MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc.
IndustryComputer hardware and software
Founded1988
Headquarters
Los Altos, California
,
USA
Key people
John Moussouris
Websitewww.microunity.com

MicroUnity Systems Engineering, Inc. is a private company located in Los Altos, California and an early developer of broadband microprocessor technologies licensed widely across digital media industries.

Founders and Funding

MicroUnity was founded in 1988 by John Moussouris, a physicist trained at Harvard and as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford who previously co-founded MIPS Computer System. [[1] [2] [3]]. The Chief Architect is Craig Hansen, who previously was Chief Architect at MIPS and NeXT. [[1] [3]] An early investor was Moussouris’ Harvard classmate William R. Hearst III, the publishing and media executive who became a partner at venture firmKleiner Perkins. [[1] [3] [4]] In the early 1990s, MicroUnity was backed by over $100 million from companies like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft,Motorola, and telecommunications leaders like Time Warner and John Malone at Tele-Communications Inc.. [[1] [3] [4] [5]]

Early Media Processing Technology

The company’s main focus was a programmable media processor chip and associated software initially aimed at set-top boxes and other systems. [[1] [3] [6]]

MicroUnity kept its product development secret until 1995. [[3] [6]] In early 1996, the company published details at COMPCON [7] [8] of its initial media processor hardware and software designs. The technology processed media data of various types and width in a 128-bit data path in parallel. [7] [8] [9]

Manufacturing Innovations

MicroUnity developed its initial designs in BiCMOS at a time when Intel Pentium Pro and SUN SPARC where designed in BiCMOS. [10] Company patents describe technologies intended for integration of analog media interfaces with digital circuits. [11] [12]

When foundry capacity became scarce, MicroUnity built a chip manufacturing plant in Sunnyvale, California[3] [6] [5]. In 1995, MicroUnity’s telecommunications investors formed @Home, Inc. to provide internet over cable using modems that could be built more cheaply in CMOS. At the direction of these investors, MicroUnity sold its BiCMOS factory in 1996 to InterConnect Technology, Malaysia.[1] [13]

The lithography innovations MicroUnity developed in its factory included optical proximity correction technology called MaskTools. The company licensed its MaskTools technology to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation and numerous other US and Asian manufacturers. [14] This lithography business was sold and became the MaskTools division of ASM Lithography in 1999. [15] [16]

Failure

With this failure, the company decreased its headcount from a peak of 200 to a small handful of employees. For several years, the company survived by selling a CAD tool dealing with optical proximity correction. In 1999, this CAD tool division of MicroUnity was sold to ASML Holding.

In 2005, the company received $300 million as settlement for a patent infringement lawsuit against Intel. The lawsuit alleged that MicroUnity's patents on SIMD instructions and multithreading were violated. The company is currently pursuing litigation against other technology companies.

Within Silicon Valley, MicroUnity was known as one of most secretive and ambitious start-up companies. It was extremely unusual for a start-up company to pursue innovations in several fields simultaneously - semiconductor processing, system design, chip architecture, software algorithms. It was also known as one of the largest financial failures among start-up companies in the history of high-tech business. Given the company's overly ambitious goals, Silicon Valley insiders had nicknamed the company MicroLunacy.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Intel Settlement Revives a Fading Chip Designer". New York Times. 2005-10-20. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
  2. ^ "John Moussouris". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "John Moussouris has created a multimedia chip that could change the face of communications. Now he hopes the world will . . . : Follow His MUSE". Los Angeles Times. 1996-04-17-. Retrieved 2014-07-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b "Chip Start-ups Big Payoff comes in at Last". New York Times. 2005-10-20. Retrieved 2014-07-01.
  5. ^ a b "A Maverick Enters Chip Making". New York Times. 1994-02-23-. Retrieved 2014-07-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b c "Chip Maker Introduces a Chip for Super Use and for Modems". New York Times. 1995-10-10-. Retrieved 2014-07-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ a b Hansen, C. (February 25-28). MicroUnity's Mediaprocessor Architecture. CompCon 1996 Technologies for the Digital Superhighway. IEEE Conference Publications. pp. 34–41. {{cite conference}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  8. ^ a b Abbott, C.;Massalin, H.;Peterson, K.;Karzes, T.;Yamano, L.;Kellogg, G. (February 25-28). Broadband algorithms with the MicroUnity Mediaprocessor. CompCon 1996 Technologies for the Digital Superhighway. IEEE Conference Publications. pp. 349–354. {{cite conference}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Yu Hen Hu (ed.). Programmable Digital Signal Processors. Marcel Dekker Inc. pp. 217–219. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  10. ^ Slater, Michael (November 13, 1995). "Intel Boosts Pentium Pro to 200 MHz". Microprocessor Report.
  11. ^ [http:// patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5112761.PN.&OS=PN/5112761&RS=PN/5112761 US Patent], James Matthew, "BiCMOS Process Utilizing Planarization Technique", issued May 12. 1992, assigned to MicroUnity 
  12. ^ US Patent, Corry; Alan , Mostyn; Graham , Michel; Jean-Yves, "Noise reduction in integrated circuits and circuit assemblies", issued July 15, 1997, assigned to MicroUnity 
  13. ^ "Buy gives Interconnect Tech Fab in Valley". Cyber Security and Information Services. 1996-10-07. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
  14. ^ "TSMC Becomes First Foundry to License MicroUnity's Lithography Solution for 0.18 Micron Production". Semiconductor Online. 1999-03-09. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
  15. ^ "ASML expands into proximity correction". EE Times. 1999-06-01. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
  16. ^ "ASM Lithography Acquires Mask-Tool Company". EE Times. 1999-06-02. Retrieved 2014-07-08.

Sources

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