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Semiconductors - Friday, January 28, 2005

eASIC - Profile

HQ: San Jose, CA

Founded: 1999

Management: CEO is Zvi Or-Bach. He also founded Chip Express but, more importantly, was a Captain in the Israeli Defense Force. Most of the management team is made up of fellow Israelis. Kleiner bigwig Vinod Khosla sits on the Board.

Investors: $7MM in three rounds. First two came from angels, and third round was $5MM in May 2004 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Business Model: eASIC has developed a technology aimed at reducing the overall fabrication cost and time of customized semiconductor chips. eASIC's products comes from the fact design environment are still getting smaller and manufacturing complexity is increasing exponentially.

Competitors: We're not sure how to tackle this list. For a good overview of fabless chip companies, check out the membership roster of the Fabless Semiconductor Association.

Dirt: We like fabless chip companies - they don't require massive amounts of capital, but the payout to investors can still be huge. Back in the day, were fans of Advanced RISC Machines, an early fabless chip company, though as this Motley Fool article points out, both the company and the sector are hurting a bit. This can't be great news for eASIC in the short term.