Arm and Qualcomm led a group of investors that have invested nearly US$10 million in chip interconnect startup Arteris, the companies said Monday.
Arteris’ main product is an on-chip interconnect called Network on Chip used to link components of complex chips, called Systems on Chips (SoCs). The company raised $9.7 million from a group led by Qualcomm and Arm, which joined the company’s existing investors, who include Synopsys and DoCoMo Capital.
As semiconductor technology advances, chip makers are increasingly moving towards integrated devices that combine functions previously performed by individual chips. The increased complexity that results from putting different components on a single piece of silicon requires faster, more scalable interconnects and more sophisticated design tools.
Arteris plans to use this latest round of financing to expand its sales and customer support operations. In addition, Arm said it wants to see Arteris’ technology become interoperable with the AMBA on-chip bus protocol.
“We see the Network on Chip technology as an enabling technology in designing complex SoCs at 40 nanometer processes and beyond,” Qualcomm Ventures, the company’s venture-capital arm, said in a statement.