Texas Based Low-Power Server Chip Start-up Raises $48 Million

A two-year old Austin, Texas-based startup Smooth-Stone is working on developing low-power processors for server applications. For that, the company has raised $48 million in the first round of financing from a syndicate of investors, which include venture capitalists and semiconductor manufacturers. 

The Smooth-Stone investors include ARM, Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), Battery Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Texas Instruments (News - Alert). ATIC is a specialist investment company created by the government of Abu Dhabi.

“This kind of investment, the amount, and the strength of this syndicate is a strong endorsement for the innovation we are bringing to market,” said Smooth-Stone CEO Barry Evans, in a statement. “We look forward to taking advantage of the insights and know-how of these industry-leading investors,” added Evans.

Although no silicon has been sampled yet, the start-up is promising a very low-power processor based on ARM (News - Alert) technology to power servers used in the corporate data centers. The idea is to displace x86 based processors incorporated in servers today with very low-power ARM based processors, which drive modern mobile phones. And, thereby, create highly efficient servers to give Intel (News - Alert) a run for its money in the server marketplace.

“Our goal is to completely remove power consumption as an issue for the data center,'' noted Evans. “They all deal with the reality that as the mass of information grows daily, so does their power consumption. Every day these companies are thinking about managing their data center sprawl. We want to make sure that space and power are not constraining their potential,” continued Evans.

Likewise, commented Bruce Beckloff, vice president of corporate business development at ARM, “There is a strong market need for a new class of data center platforms that offer a significant improvement in performance from both the energy and density perspectives, and ARM is excited to support Smooth-Stone’s efforts to develop innovative chip solutions for this new class of platforms.”

The Smooth-Stone board now comprises Smooth-Stone’s Evans, Tom Lantzsch, executive vice president and corporate development at ARM, Daniel Durn, executive director at ATIC, Ken Lawler, general partner at Battery Ventures, David Aronoff, general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, Sean Dalton, general partner at Highland Capital Partners (News - Alert), and Howard Bubb, semiconductor industry executive.

Smooth-Stone plans to sample the 32-bit ARM based processor by the year-end. Also, according to a company spokeswoman, the processor uses Linux operating system. And is expected to go into production within next two years.

Ashok Bindra is a veteran writer and editor with more than 25 years of editorial experience covering RF/wireless technologies, semiconductors and power electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Erin Harrison