Fast-Chip gets $11M funding for OC-192 coprocessor

Fast-Chip gets $11M funding for OC-192 coprocessor
By EBN Staff, EBN
July 20, 2000 (8:15 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000720S0049

Fast-Chip Inc., a fabless semiconductor company in the high-performance communications IC market, today announced that it secured $11 million of venture capital funding led by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity.

The financing, with participation by Synergy Venture Partners, and others, will accelerate Fast-Chip's introduction of its PolicyEdge network coprocessor later this year.

By refining the network data path through partitioning and acceleration of critical tasks, Fast-Chip aims to enable high-level features at data rates of OC-48 (2.5 megabits per second), OC-192 (10 Mbit/s), and beyond.

Fast-Chip, Los Gatos, Calif., currently targets three market segments: optical switching, MAN/WAN multiservice, and the broadband access markets. "PolicyEdge will enable high level intelligent management of data," said Alex Henderson, Fast-Chip's chief technology officer. "Feature-rich services, bandwidth on demand, differentiated services, an d billable premium services are the future of the Internet."

"It's rewarding to see the financial community recognize our technology and market position," said Gregg Cook, CEO and President of Fast-Chip. "This funding helps fuel our momentum and removes a major obstacle in our effort to provide truly advanced semiconductor solutions to the Internet infrastructure marketplace."