Silent start-up readies to take on Intel in notebooks
It’s a drama we’ve all seen play out before: a small, secretive start-up lays plans to come out with a chip that will compete against Intel in a hot market. Montalvo Systems is just hoping it has a different ending this time. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is designing a multicore, energy-efficient chip for ultraportables and notebooks that will be capable of running the same software that Intel chips run, according to sources. Venture and private equity firms such as CMEA, Bay Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, NEA-IndoUS Ventures, and Adams Street Partners have plunked more than $73 million into the company.
The company has filed several patents, say sources, but only a few applications have thus far become public through the World Intellectual Property Organization. The disclosed patent applications revolve around conserving energy while retrieving data from memory or caches. Although the company doesn’t have chips yet, it is expected to make some sort of public announcement later this year about its progress. It has offices in Silicon Valley and Bangalore and has several employment requests open on job boards.
Comments are closed.