Doug A. Laird

Formative Ventures LLC (Formative ventures) is an Independent Venture Capital firm founded in 2000 by Brian Connors and Clint Chao. The firm is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Cswitch Corp. developed and manufactured configurable switch array devices. The company was founded in 2003 and was headquartered in Cupertino, CA.

Charles River Ventures, Inc. is a venture capital firm founded in 1970. The firm is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Transmeta Corp. develops and licenses innovative computing, microprocessor and semiconductor technologies and related intellectual property. Its advanced power management technologies control leakages and increase power efficiency in semiconductor devices. The company was founded in 1995 by Boris Abad Guerra and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. provides network computing infrastructure solutions. It offers its solutions under the Java technology platform, Solaris Operating System, MySQL database management system, Sun StorageTek storage solutions, and UltraSPARC processor brands. The company also develops networking computing products and technologies which include servers, storage, open source software, tools, and training. The company provides solutions to the social networking, entertainment, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, news, energy, and engineering companies. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

LSI Corp. designs, develops, and markets high-performance storage and networking semiconductors. Its products include custom and standard product integrated circuits that are used in disk drives, solid state drives, high-speed communications systems, computer servers, storage systems, and personal computers. The company was founded on November 6, 1980 and is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

Veebeam Corp. develops wireless technology and products. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

Tier Logic is a semiconductor company designing FPGA and ASIC products and associated tools. Their primary innovation is IC structures. They build FPGAs using a three-dimensional (3D) approach that not only delivers significant reductions in FPGA cost, but also makes it extremely easy and low-cost to move from the FPGA to an ASIC, with zero risk and additional significant cost reductions as a result. Its name, Tier Logic, reflects the 3D nature of its products. They have already amassed a significant patent portfolio of over 50 issued patents in the area of three-dimensional circuit design and implementation. Although its technology is novel, from the customer’s perspective it is very easy to use, requiring no new skills in the area of logic design or tools usage. Any user of traditional FPGAs will find it very straightforward to use Tier Logic’s products.