Eliyan

Company Overview

Eliyan is a semiconductor company focused on revolutionizing chiplet connectivity technologies. The company was founded in 2016 by Ramin Farjadrad, who developed a breakthrough die-to-die interconnect architecture that reached new levels of high bandwidth and low latency at best-in-class area and power efficiency. Eliyan is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Eliyan’s mission is to challenge the status quo in chiplet interconnect technology to unleash the ultimate performance of smart systems of the future. The company aims to enable the creation of super large Systems-in-Package (SiPs) on standard packaging, improving AI performance by 10x through eliminating “The Memory Wall”.

Products Overview

Eliyan’s core technology is NuLink™, a PHY (physical layer) technology for die-to-die interconnects. Key features of NuLink include:

• High bandwidth at low power
• Enables large & complex systems in package (10-12 reticles)
• Low packaging cost and short production cycle
• High test coverage and high yield
• Long die-to-die reach & low thermal crosstalk
• Exceptional signal & power integrity
• Widely available supply chain

Eliyan offers several product categories:

1. Die-to-Die PHY IP Products: NuLink PHY IP cores for standard packaging designed for organic/laminate packages with bump pitches from 100um to 130um. These support industry standards like UCIe and BoW as well as Eliyan’s proprietary UMI and SBD technologies.

2. Die-to-Memory PHY IP Products: NuLink-based solutions for die-to-memory connections.

3. Chiplet Products: Eliyan is developing chiplets based on NuLink technology, including memory chiplets.

The company claims its technology can deliver up to 4x the bandwidth and 2x the power efficiency of today’s alternatives.

Founding Team

1. Ramin Farjadrad - Co-founder & CEO
   • Inventor of over 130 granted and pending patents in communications and networking
   • Previously co-founded Velio Communications (acquired by Rambus/LSI Logic) and Aquantia (IPO’d and acquired by Marvell Technologies)
   • Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford
2. Patrick Soheili - Chief Strategy and Business Officer
   • Former CEO of three early-stage technology companies
   • Led business development and IPBU at eSilicon
   • Held leadership roles at Altera, AMD, and TRW
   • MBA from Purdue, BS in Math and Physics from UCSB and University of Bristol
3. Syrus Ziai - Chief Operating Officer
   • Held VP of engineering roles at Nuvia, Ikanos, Qualcomm, and PsiQuantum
   • Extensive experience in systems, chip architecture, design methodologies, and packaging
   • MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford
   • 30 years of experience and 11 patents

Problem and Market Fit

Eliyan is addressing the challenges in chip design as the industry moves from monolithic systems-on-chip to multi-die systems-on-substrate. The key problems they’re solving include:

1. The need for high-bandwidth, low-latency, and low-power inter-die connections in chiplet-based systems.
2. The limitations of advanced packaging technologies (like silicon interposers) in terms of cost, complexity, and production cycle time.
3. The “Memory Wall” in AI systems, which limits performance due to memory bandwidth constraints.

Eliyan’s NuLink technology aims to provide a solution that works on both advanced and standard packaging, offering performance comparable to advanced packaging solutions but with the cost and supply chain benefits of standard packaging.

Business Model

Eliyan appears to operate on an IP licensing model, providing their NuLink PHY technology to semiconductor companies for integration into their designs. They offer:

1. IP cores for die-to-die and die-to-memory connections
2. Custom solutions
3. Chiplet products (in development)

The company is positioning itself as an enabler for the chiplet ecosystem, supporting industry standards like UCIe and BoW while also offering proprietary enhancements.

Funding and Runway

While specific funding amounts are not provided, the company has received investments from several major players in the semiconductor and AI chip ecosystem, including:

• Intel
• Micron
• Samsung
• SK hynix
• Celesta Capital
• Cerberus Capital Management
• VentureTech Alliance

The most recent funding news mentions a strategic investment from VentureTech Alliance, announced on an unspecified date.

Competitive Landscape

Eliyan is competing in the chiplet interconnect space, which is seeing increasing interest as the industry moves towards multi-die designs. While specific competitors are not named, the company positions its technology as superior to existing solutions, claiming up to 4x the bandwidth and 2x the power efficiency of alternatives.

The company is also actively participating in industry standards bodies, including: - Open Compute Project (OCP) - Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) - JEDEC

This suggests they are competing and collaborating with other major semiconductor companies in shaping the future of chiplet interconnect standards.

Customers

Specific customers are not mentioned in the provided material. However, given the nature of their technology and the investors involved, it’s likely that Eliyan is targeting major semiconductor companies, AI chip designers, and system integrators working on high-performance computing and AI applications.

Relevant News

1. Bloomberg reported that Samsung and Tiger Global backed Eliyan in a funding round (March 25, 2024).

2. An article on NextPlatform discussed how Eliyan’s technology could be used to build a “better ‘Blackwell’ GPU than Nvidia did” (March 28, 2024).

3. EE Journal published an article titled “Is This the Ultimate Chiplet Interconnect Technology?” focusing on Eliyan’s technology (date unspecified).

4. EE Times reported on Eliyan breaking the “Chiplet Memory Wall With Standard Packaging” (date unspecified).

These news items highlight the industry interest in Eliyan’s technology and its potential impact on high-performance chip design, particularly in the AI and GPU markets.