Network processor startup SiByte raises $40 million in third funding round

Network processor startup SiByte raises $40 million in third funding round
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- SiByte Inc., a communications-processor startup here, today announced that it has raised $40 million in third-round financing, and will use the capital for further development of its first-generation products targeted at the Internet infrastructure equipment market. Details of SiByte's high-performance, low-power processor core will be unveiled at the Embedded Processor Forum in June.

The round of funding led by Bowman Capital, also includes investments from graphics-chip maker ATI Technologies Inc.; network systems companies Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc.; and Raza Venture Fund.

"We are very excited about the potential of SiByte technology," said John Wakerly, vice president of engineering at Cisco Systems in San Jose. "It is Cisco's belief that SiByte has the core competencies to become a world-class supplier of next-generation communication processor solutions."

SiByte was founded in 1998 by former Digital Equipment Corp. engineer Dan Dobberpuhl, who led the development of the Alpha processor and the StrongARM processor core. SiByte licensed the MIPS64a from MIPS Technologies Inc. in 1999.

"SiByte is well positioned to become a leader in delivering the highest-performance embedded processors for the networking and communications markets," said John Bourgoin, chairman and CEO of MIPS Technologies. "SiByte is taking the performance advantages of the MIPS architecture to the next level."

Also investing in this round is Raza Venture Fund, led by A. Atiq Raza, the former president and chief operating officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and a member of SiByte's board of directors.

"The rapid explosion of bandwidth in the networking and communications industries continues to drive demand for high performance processor solutions," said Chris DePuy, general partner at Bowman Capital, headquartered in San Mateo, Calif. SiByte's world-class VLSI design expertise and strong customer focus clearly positions them to exploit this huge market opportunity. SiByte fits perfectly within our model."