MassHighTech August 18, 2003

 

Stealthy Coatue is acquired by AMD
By Jeff Miller

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. of California quietly bought Coatue Corp., a secretive microchip startup in Woburn, at the end of May.

Coatue, which raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Cambridge-based DFJ New England and ITU Ventures of Los Angeles, has been developing polymer microchips that combine DRAM speed, Flash non-volatility, and low-power consumption into a single universal memory chip.

By using polymers (better known as plastics) as the base, Coatue says it can manufacture microchips cheaper than those making chips from silicon wafers — with plastics, circuits could be sprayed onto a surface rather than etched in, as they are with silicon.

Coatue also says that the polymer chips could hold more information in less space than conventional silicon chips, though they are designed to be compatible with silicon-based devices.

Plus, because the chips would be non-volatile, information remains on the polymer chip after the power is turned off, enabling such things as an instant boot.

Coatue has been rolled into FASL, a joint venture formed in March between AMD and Fujitsu that aims to challenge Intel’s dominance of the flash memory market.

AMD had been working with Coatue on product development for some time before the acquisition, said John Nation, a spokesperson for FASL.

“We felt it was progressing on a product to the point where it made sense for us to bring all of that development work in-house,” Nation said. “So AMD went through with that acquisition at the end of May.”

Nation declined to release a purchase price, though he said the acquisition was “basically cash.”

Coatue is now operating as AMD’s Woburn development center. A message left with Coatue’s founder and CEO, Andrew Perlman, was returned by AMD. Partners at DFJ New England declined to comment, citing confidentiality agreements. ITU issued a press release announcing the acquisition, but calls to ITU were not returned.