VC-Backed Hardware Design Collaboration is the (All) Spice of Life
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
Release Date: 05/30/2023
Changing the World One Wireless RF Chip at a Time
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
After beginning his career with Hewlett-Packard, David Su met a friend for lunch to learn about a new startup called Atheros. He was so excited by the vision to develop world-changing products that Su “went for lunch and never left.” At Atheros, Su had a “front-row seat” developing wireless WAN technology that transitioned from novelty to necessity while Atheros grew from a startup to a billion-dollar behemoth. That little startup was eventually acquired by another company you may have heard of: Qualcomm. And what led Su to get involved with another startup? Well, lunch, of course. Su...
info_outline
Can Silicon Photonics Solve the Bandwidth Bottleneck in AI Data Centers?
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
Steve Klinger, Vice President of Product, joins the Moore’s Lobby podcast to discuss how LightMatter is using silicon photonics to improve speed and reduce power consumption in AI data centers. With two previous $1B+ startups under his belt, Klinger knows a thing or two about identifying successful technology solutions to current industry challenges. While compute performance continues to grow rapidly, interconnect has not been able to keep pace. In this episode, Klinger explains how LightMatter’s flagship product, Passage, creates a programmable optical fabric for the efficient...
info_outline
Freeing EEs to Design Like Tony Stark
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
While leading the system design of new head-word displays for fighter pilots, Tomide Adesanmi was most excited when he got a chance to innovate. However, like most electronics design engineers, he found that the majority of his time was spent searching distributor sites for components, drawing symbols, and working with spreadsheets. Engineers can also relate to the anxiety he felt, worrying that he might have made a silly mistake by missing a tiny detail on “page 243 of the datasheet” for a microcontroller. So, he quit his job to try to tackle the mundane problems of design using...
info_outline
Cooperation and Competition Behind the Scenes in the RISC-V Community
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
Over the course of his fascinating career, Mark Himelstein has worked on several significant computing technologies at historic companies like MIPS and Sun Microsystems. He has also worked as a consultant in various roles that include architect, VP of engineering, and advisor. However, RISC-V may have a greater impact on the computing field and our world than any of those previous efforts. Himelstein gives us an insiders view on the open standard process that is often “cooperation and competition, simultaneously.” “The thing that keeps us as a community is the effort in the...
info_outline
At Silicon Labs, Wireless IoT is Only The First Step in Rethinking Product Design
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
Daniel Cooley started his career in RF chip design at and now leads technology and product development at “the number one wireless supplier” for the Internet of Things. In this thoughtful interview, Cooley explains why adding wireless connectivity is only the first step to completely rethinking product designs and features. He noted that “the home run cases aren't where wireless is the feature; it's where wireless made that product better.” Cooley explains that Silicon Labs’ primary goal is to help companies get started with their preferred wireless protocol quickly and efficiently...
info_outline
Pragmatic Semi is Breaking the Rules and Bending Silicon Electronics
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
While Moore’s Law scaling has driven incredible advancements in computing, AI, and smartphones, many applications don’t need or benefit from the most advanced semiconductor nodes. From its inception, Pragmatic Semiconductor’s goal has been to take a…well, pragmatic…approach to develop an ultra low-cost, fast cycle time alternative to traditional silicon processing. Oh, and did we mention that the resulting chips and wafers are also flexible? You will definitely want to check out this Moore’s Lobby conversation between White and our host, Daniel Bogdanoff, as they dive into: -The...
info_outline
State of the Industry: Semiconductor Insiders Discuss the Ambitions and Realities of the CHIPS Act
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
The chip shortage made us all think about the precarious semiconductor supply chain. In response, the US government has moved to bolster the domestic industry. The CHIPS and Science Act was signed into law in August 2022, but we are still waiting to see its impact on US semiconductor manufacturing. In this podcast, we are joined by three industry insiders: Rich Simoncic, EVP of Microchip Technology. Russ Garcia, CEO of Menlo Micro. Michael Knight, President & CEO at Endries International. They will give us their perspective on the CHIPS Act and what should be done to improve the supply...
info_outline
Leading the RISC-V Revolution, SiFive Aims to Take the Computing Industry Throne
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
During his fascinating career, Jack Kang has had the opportunity to work on iconic, massively successful products like the Microsoft Xbox Kinect and Nintendo Switch. Today, as one of the founding members of SiFive, Kang works alongside several of the creators of the RISC-V ISA to bring new products to market. SiFive is developing products based on the open RISC-V standard to deliver high-performance, low-power density processors for applications from wearables to data centers, edge computing, and aerospace. The highlights of this conversation between Kang and our Moore’s Lobby host,...
info_outline
Quantum Computing: Sci-Fi Technology Requires Real-World Engineering
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
A decade after demonstrating the first entanglement of semiconducting spin quantum bits, or qubits, Oliver Dial and IBM Quantum are developing the ICs, cryogenic systems, error mitigation techniques, and software tools that will identify solutions to problems beyond the scope of classical computers. Recently, the IBM Quantum team announced the , and Dial joins us to talk about a subject that he loves. The highlights of this conversation between Dial and our Moore’s Lobby host, Daniel Bogdanoff, include: A comparison of quantum and classic Turing computing systems. Temperatures down to...
info_outline
Energizing the Future: Real-Time Precision in Renewable Energy Management
Moore's Lobby: Where engineers talk all about circuits
Optimizing energy generation and consumption requires accurately measuring currents and voltages. In addition, to maximize overall efficiency, that data must be shared in real-time or near real-time. The highlights of this conversation between Henrik Mannesson of and host Daniel Bogdanoff include discussing: -The differences between power management in the home or small factory and power management at the grid. -The evolution from smart metering to energy management. -The importance of accuracy in power measurement and how to achieve it. -The benefits of staying with a single company for many...
info_outlineIn this unique episode of the Moore’s Lobby podcast, we get to hear from not only the technologists and executives behind the company but the investor who is helping them make their dreams a reality.
As an electrical engineer, Chrissy Meyer had spent years working in product design on large projects at Apple, including the Apple iPod Nano and Touch. She is all too familiar with the outdated methods of hardware collaboration and design reviews—printed schematics, highlighters, and engineers huddled around a conference room table.
According to Kyle Dumont, a first-time entrepreneur as Allspice CTO, their goal is centered “around making it easy to build a workflow and collaboration process for electronics designs.” In his earlier career working in hardware at both large and small companies, he also “became pretty frustrated with how difficult it was to collaborate on our electronics designs.”
Valentina Ratner, CEO of Allspice, goes on to explain that the industry is “trying to build colonies in Mars, and I don't think we're going to get there with Google Sheets and PDFs and screenshots.”
In her current role as a partner at Root Ventures investing in early-seed tech startups, the engineer inside Meyer had a “visceral” reaction when Ratner and Dumont explained their vision to bring Git-style collaboration software to the hardware world. Meyer explains that “there was never a doubt in my mind that this problem that they were describing was very real. Because the truth is I had lived it for 15 years.”
Meyer said, “I had to take off my engineering hat for a quick second and say, okay, reign in the excitement. Yes, this is a fantastic product for an engineer. Is this a great investment?...the truth is, there are far fewer electrical engineers than there are software developers.”
With the backing of Root Ventures, Ratner and Dumont founded Allspice and quickly got to work. As a first-time entrepreneur and CEO, Ratner admits that she had to learn a lot quickly because “there are just so many unknowns.”
Reflecting on some early lessons, Ratner shares some interesting advice for fellow tech entrepreneurs:
“It's less about convincing anyone and more about finding the people that already believe in the version of the world that you're trying to build.”
Other highlights of this round-table discussion include:
-Meyers’ belief that “'there's this common misconception that in order to approach VCs, you need to have a fully polished pitch deck, and you need a financial model and forecasts and projections.”
-Insights on one of the favorite features of Allspice: the ability to run digital, asynchronous hardware design reviews
-Where Meyer thinks hardware and software companies are going to win in the future