Calxeda, a relatively well-funded ARM processor startup that seemed destined for success, has run out of money and shut down.
"Carrying the load of industry pioneer has exceeded our ability to
continue to operate as we had envisioned," Karl Freund, VP of marketing,
and Barry Evans, president, said in a joint statement distributed to
the media.
Lack of funding was the immediate cause. "[They] pulled the plug
because they couldn't secure funding for a next round," said Pat
Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
They had raised more than $90 million in venture capital, according to AllThingsD, which first reported the story.
Moorhead continued. "They had anticipated better sales of their
32-bit products, but that didn't materialize because customers waited
for 64-bit platforms."
Founded in 2008 by Intel and Marvell engineer Barry Evans, the
company was one of the first to introduce a power-efficient ARM
processor for data centers, which had traditionally run on more
power-hungry Intel and AMD processors.
Calxeda's design combines power-sipping ARM-based processors with an
integrated "fabric switch" for handling network communications.
The company's chips had been slated for Hewlett Packard's Moonshot servers. Those servers now use power-efficient Intel Atom processors.
Companies like Calxeda and SeaMicro (now owned by AMD) spurred Intel
to come up with more power-frugal processors for data centers.
Another challenge for Calxeda was that Intel began to offer Xeon
processors with fabric controllers on chip, making Calxeda's proposition
less appealing today, according to Moorhead.
In closing, Evans and Freund said that the company "has begun a
restructuring process. During this process, we remain committed to our
customer's success with ECX-2000 projects that are now under way."
