Montalvo Systems was a Silicon Valley start-up reportedly working on an asymmetrical, x86 capable processor similar to the Cell microprocessor. The processor was to use high-performance cores for performance-intensive threads, and delegate minor tasks to the simpler cores to save silicon and power.[1] Matt Perry, former Transmeta CEO, was CEO and president of Montalvo; Peter Song, founder of failed x86 manufacturer MemoryLogix, was chief architect. Greg Favor (former NexGen/AMD) was responsible for chip microarchitecture and Carlos Puchol (former architect for power management at Transmeta and Nvidia) was system and power architect. Another founding member, Kevin Lawton, of bochs (x86 emulation) and plex86 (x86 virtualization) fame, was the processor simulator architect.
The official description of business from Montalvo's security filings[2] was:
A fabless semiconductor company developing ultra low-power system-on-chips for mobile devices.
As of 24 April 2008, Sun Microsystems had acquired the company's assets for an undisclosed sum.[3]
Locations
editHeadquarters were in Santa Clara, California, next door to the remnants of Transmeta, and nearby to Intel and Sun. It had offices in Boulder, Colorado and Bangalore, India. According to news reports, it had close to 300 employees.
In March 2008 news broke that Montalvo was seeking funds to avoid shutdown.[4] According to a news article released on March 31, Montalvo had laid off two-thirds of its engineers. At the same time, rumors surfaced that Sun Microsystems was in talks to buy Montalvo.[5] About three weeks later, on 24 April 2008, The Register confirmed the rumors to be true.[3]
Finances
editFrom the Cal-EASI database,[2] the following information is available about Montalvo's financing.
| Date | Type | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-05-03 | Series A | $1,997,751.36 | non-money, assumption of previous company's financing? |
| 2005-05-03 | Series A | $4,548,247.70 | |
| 2005-10-11 | Warrants | $302,000.00 | |
| 2005-10-24 | Series A | $9,548,247.70 | |
| 2006-03-10 | Series B | $26,299,998.53 | |
| 2007-08-29 | Bridge | $11,607,573.06 | subordinated convertible promissory notes |
| 2007-12-17 | Bridge | $20,000,000.00 | subordinated convertible promissory notes / warrants |
News
edit- 2008-04-24 Sun buys low-power x86 disaster Montalvo
- 2008-04-03 Sun Microsystems could use Montalvo as a strategic lever against Intel
- 2008-04-01 Sun close to buying Intel would-be competitor Montalvo
- 2008-03-31 Montalvo Systems cuts two thirds of staff
- 2008-03-31 Rumor: Intel competitor Montalvo bracing for cuts
- 2008-03-20 Montalvo seeking a hoard of cash to avoid shutdown
- 2008-02-18 VIA Continues Transition From Chipsets To CPU To Profitability. Skeptical on Montalvo X86 Chip Success
- 2008-02-15 Montalvo, a competitor of Intel and AMD, not yet born and already in trouble
- 2008-02-14 Secret recipe inside Intel's latest competitor
- 2008-02-13 Cash-burning Montalvo tapes out Silverthorne rival
- 2008-02-06 Silent start-up readies to take on Intel in notebooks
- 2007-06-05 Montalvo CFO leaves and joins Agami Systems
- 2006-08-25 Is that a VMware CTO and Transmeta CEO at your start-up?
- 2006-08-19 Former Transmeta CEO goes at Intel with another low-power chip
- 2005-10-27 Chip start-up Montalvo looks to speed mobile devices
References
edit- ^ Kanellos, Michael (15 February 2008). "Secret recipe inside Intel's latest competitor". CNET.
- ^ a b "Cal-EASI Database".
- ^ a b Vance, Ashlee (24 April 2008). "Sun buys low-power x86 disaster Montalvo". The Register.
- ^ Takahashi, Dean (20 March 2008). "Montalvo seeking a hoard of cash to avoid shutdown". VentureBeat.
- ^ Kanellos, Michael (1 January 2008). "Sun close to buying Intel would-be competitor Montalvo". CNET.