- Chipidea
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Chipidea was a Portuguese analog semiconductor IP design center, headquarterd in Oeiras, Greater Lisbon subregion, which had been founded in 1997 by José Epifânio da Franca. In August of 2007 it was bought by the US-based company MIPS Technologies for $147 million in cash plus future performance-based stock payments. On May 8th 2009, Synopsys acquired it as the Analog Business Group from MIPS Technologies for $22 million in cash.
History
In 1997 Chipidea Microelectronica S.A. was founded as the first Portuguese Analog semiconductor IP design center. The company evolved into a broadline, one-stop-shop supplier of high performance Analog and Mixed-Signal IP on leading edge manufacturing processes.
From basic building blocks to complete systems, Chipidea's IP portfolio included ADCs, DACs, PLLs and Synthesizers, Baseband Transmit and Receive Ports, RF front-ends, Analog and Digital Filters, Oversampling Modulators and Codec Analog Front-Ends, DC-DC Converters, Regulators, Digital Transceivers, Line Drivers and other Physical Interfaces. Chipidea's application drivers were in Communications, Multimedia and Consumer Electronics Applications.
Throughout its existence, Chipidea experienced robust growth and continuous profitability making it one of the world's leading, independent suppliers of analog and mixed-signal IP. Chipidea become the working place for 270 people involved in IP research and development, CAD and technology support and test and characterization. They were located at the main building in Oeiras, near Lisbon, as well as in other sites: Maia, near Porto, Portugal; Gdansk, Poland; Leuven, Belgium; Macau; Suzhou, China; Caen, France and Trondheim, Norway. Sales and marketing offices were located in the USA, Europe and Asia.
In January 2007 Chipidea acquired Nordic Semiconductor ASA's Data Conversion business unit for USD 5mm, thus strengthening the company's offer in Analog IP.
In late August 2007 Chipidea was acquired by US based company MIPS Technologies Inc. for $147 million in cash plus future performance-based stock payments. As a consequence of this, Chipidea became a newly-formed business group inside MIPS Technologies, yet keeping its Portuguese workforce and facilities, as well as its complete product portfolio that continued to be sold under the Chipidea brand.
The brand was eventually discontinued and the remains of the original Portuguese company were fully integrated into MIPS Technologies.
On May 8th 2009, the Analog Business Group of MIPS was acquired by Synopsys for $22 million in cash.
External links
Categories:- Defunct companies of Portugal
- MIPS Technologies
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