Arteris raises $9.7mn as Qualcomm and ARM join existing investors behind network-on-chip (NoC) pioneer

SAN JOSE, USA: Arteris Inc., a leading interconnect IP solutions provider, has raised the first tranche of a strategic investment round totaling $9.7 million from a group of investors led by Qualcomm Inc. and including ARM. These two new investors join existing investors, Synopsys, DoCoMo Capital, Crescendo Ventures, TVM Capital and Ventech, who also participated in this round.

Arteris is the pioneer of Network on Chip (NoC) interconnect IP solutions and supplies its technology to leading SoC makers for wide range of applications. Arteris will use the financing to expand its global sales and customer support infrastructure to further accelerate adoption of its Interconnect IP and design tool solutions.

“We see the Network on Chip technology as an enabling technology in designing complex SoCs at 40 nanometer processes and beyond,” said Frederic Rombaut, Managing Director, Qualcomm Ventures Europe. “As process technology advances and individual integrated circuits become more complex, there needs to be a new approach to integrating and managing all the functionality on a single chip.”

“This investment is central to our strategy of creating a heterogeneous interconnect eco-system around the AMBA specification, upon which our mutual customers can design and connect a variety of innovative IP, complementary protocols and services,” said Keith Clarke, General Manager, Fabric IP, ARM.

“We will work with Arteris to ensure that ARM silicon partners have access to the broadest range of AMBA and multi-standard interconnect solutions. Our goal is to have the Arteris technology interoperate with AMBA protocol-based IP and so accelerate deployment of ARM processors in SoC designs.”

“The addition of Qualcomm and ARM to the group of investors who are backing Arteris is another endorsement of our interconnect technology approach, and will bring more semiconductor industry expertise to our team. We have demonstrated, by SoC tapeouts, production silicon and delivery of Arteris connected end products to consumers, that the Arteris NoC technology improves complex SoC design quality while reducing design cycle time compared to existing hybrid bus interconnect approaches.

“We are aiming to deepen the interoperability of the Arteris NoC technology with ARM processors, and AMBA interconnect protocol standards to help SoC makers and system houses improve capability and delivery of advanced SoC semiconductors,” said K. Charles Janac, President and CEO of Arteris.