QuickLogic Corporation was founded in 1988 and reincorporated in Delaware in
1999. Our vision is to transform the way people and devices interact with each
other and their surroundings. Our mission is to provide innovative platforms
to successfully enable our customers to develop products that fundamentally
change the end-user experience. Specifically, we are a fabless semiconductor
company that develops low power System on Chip, or SoCs, Field Programmable
Gate Arrays, or FPGAs and embedded FPGA intellectual property. QuickLogic’s
products enable smartphone, wearable, hearable, tablet and Internet-of-Things
or IoT device Original Equipment Manufacturers, or OEMs, to deliver highly differentiated,
immersive user experiences and long battery life for their customers.
Our solutions are created from our new silicon platforms including its EOS™,
ArcticLink® III, PolarPro®3, PolarPro II, PolarPro, and Eclipse II products
(which together comprise our new product category). Our mature products include
primarily pASIC®3 and QuickRAM® as well as programming hardware and
design software. In addition to delivering our own semiconductor solutions,
we have an IP business that licenses our embedded Field Programmable Gate Arrays
or
eFPGA technology for use in other semiconductor companies SoCs. We began delivering
our eFPGA intellectual property or IP product ArcticPro™ in 2017.
Our solutions typically fall into one of three categories: Sensor Processing,
Display and Visual Enhancement, and Smart Connectivity. Our solutions include
a unique combination of our silicon platforms, intellectual property cores,
software drivers, and in some cases, firmware, and application software. All
of our silicon platforms are standard devices and must be programmed to be effective
in a system. Our intellectual property that enables always-on context-aware
sensor applications includes our Flexible Fusion Engine, our Sensor Manager
and Communications Manager technologies as well as IP that (i) improves multimedia
content, such as our Visual Enhancement Engine, or VEE, technology, and Display
Power Optimizer, or DPO, technology; and (ii) implements commonly used mobile
system interfaces, such as Low Voltage Differential Signaling, or LVDS, Mobile
Industry Processor Interface, or MIPI, and Secure Digital Input Output, or SDIO.
We provide complete solutions by first architecting the solution jointly with
our customers or ecosystem partner’s engineering group, selecting the
appropriate solution platform and Proven System Blocks or PSBs, providing custom
logic, integrating the logic, programming the device with the PSBs and/or firmware,
providing software drivers or application software required for the customers
application, and supporting the customer on-site during integration, verification
and testing. In many cases, we may deliver software algorithms that have been
optimized for use in a QuickLogic silicon platform.
We also work with mobile processor manufacturers, sensor manufacturers, and/or
voice recognition, sensor fusion and context awareness algorithm developers
in the development of reference designs, Qualified Vendor Lists, or QVLs, or
“Catalog” solutions. Through reference designs that incorporate
our solutions, we believe mobile processor manufacturers, sensor manufacturers,
and sensor and voice algorithm companies can expand the served available market
for their respective products. Furthermore, should a solution development for
a processor manufacturer or sensor and/or sensor algorithm company be applicable
to a set of common OEMs or Original Design Manufacturers or ODMs, we can amortize
our Research and Development, or R&D, investment over that set of OEMs or
ODMs. We call this type of solution a Catalog solution and we are placing a
greater emphasis on developing and marketing these types of solutions.
We have changed our manufacturing strategies to reduce the cost of our silicon
solution platforms to enable their use in high volume, mass customization products.
Our PolarPro 3E, PolarPro II and PolarPro solution platforms include an innovative
logic cell architecture, which enables us to deliver twice the programmable
logic in the same die size. Our EOS S3 and ArcticLink 3 silicon platforms combine
mixed signal physical functions and hard-wired logic alongside programmable
logic. Our EOS S3 and ArcticLink III solution platforms are manufactured on
an advanced process node where we can benefit from smaller die sizes. We typically
implement sophisticated logic blocks and mixed signal functions in hard-wired
logic because it is very cost-effective and energy efficient. We use small form
factor packages, which are less expensive to manufacture and include smaller
pin counts. Reduced pin counts result in lower costs for our customers printed
circuit board space and routing. In addition, we have dramatically reduced the
time we require to program and test our devices, which has reduced our costs
and lowered the capital equipment required to program and test our devices.
Furthermore, our SRAM reprogrammable silicon platforms can be programmed in-system
by our customers, and therefore we do not incur programming cost, lowering the
overall cost of ownership to our customers. We expect to continue to invest
in silicon solution platforms and manufacturing technologies that make us cost
and power consumption effective for high-volume, battery-powered applications.
We market our solutions primarily to mobile device OEMs and ODMs. We have complete
solutions incorporating our EOS S3, ArcticLink III S2, ArcticLink III VX and
BX, PolarPro 3, PolarPro II, PolarPro, and Eclipse II solution platforms, packaging,
IPs, custom logic, software drivers and our architecture consulting. We partner
with target customers in our focus markets to architect and design solutions
and to integrate and test our solutions in our customers products. A solution
can be based on our programmable technology, which enables customized designs,
low power, flexibility, rapid time-to-market, longer time-in-market and lower
total cost of ownership. From a mobile system designers perspective, a solutions
function is known and complete, and consequently can be designed into systems
with a minimum amount of effort and risk. We are capable of providing complete
solutions because of our investment in developing the low power IP and software
required to implement specific functions, along with sensor software algorithms
optimized for our architecture. Because we are involved with our customers at
the definition stage of their products, we are able to architect solutions that
typically have more than one IP, absorbing more functionality traditionally
implemented with multiple ASSPs. In cases where our solution has multiple IPs,
significant system performance or battery life improvements can be realized
by enabling direct data transfers between the IPs, or by offloading more processing
tasks from the host processor to our solution. In some cases, we develop the
IPs and either software or firmware ourselves and, in other cases, we utilize
third parties to develop the mixed signal physical layers, logic and/or software.
We market our solutions to OEMs and ODMs offering differentiated mobile products,
to processor vendors wishing to expand their served available market, and to
sensor manufacturers wishing to expand their ecosystems. Our target mobile markets
include Tablets, Wearables, Hearables, Smartphones and IoT. Our solutions typically
fall into one of three categories: Sensor Processing, Display and Visual Enhancement,
or Smart Connectivity.
Our new products are also being used in applications in our traditional markets,
such as data communications, instrumentation and test and military-aerospace,
where customers value the low power consumption, instant-on, IP security, reliability
and fast time-to-market of our products.
The fact that we use our programmable technology to customize these solutions
provides two advantages over conventional ASSPs that are based on ASIC technology.
Foremost is the fact that our solutions can be tailored for a specific customers
requirements. Once we have developed IPs, it is easy to combine IPs with a platforms
fixed logic and utilize the remaining programmable logic to provide a unique
set of features to a mobile system designer, or to add other functions to the
solution, such as Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter, or UARTs, keyboard
scanning functions, Serial Peripheral Interface, or SPI, ports, which minimizes
system size and cost, and InfraRed Data Association, or IRDA. We are able to
develop these solutions from a common solution platform, and partner with system
designers to implement a range of solutions, or products, that address different
geographic and market requirements. By using programmable technology instead
of ASIC technology, we reduce the development time, development risk and total
cost of ownership and are able to bring solutions to market far more quickly
than other custom silicon alternatives.
By using our silicon platforms, our IPs, our software, and our in-depth architecture
knowledge, we can deliver energy efficient custom solutions that blend the benefits
of traditional ASSPs with the flexibility, product proliferation, differentiation
and low total cost of ownership advantages of programmable logic.
Our product technology consists of five major elements:
First, our programmable logic allows us to hardware customize our platforms.
We have two distinct types of programmable logic. We have an SRAM-reprogrammable
logic architecture that utilizes a standard CMOS-logic process to meet the specific
needs of the sensor and I/O subsystems of mobile devices: very low standby power,
low dynamic power, and in-system reprogrammable technology. Our SRAM-reprogrammable
logic is the basis of our ArcticPro eFPGA IP Licensing initiative.
We also have our ViaLink programmable logic that uses proprietary and patented
technology to meet the specific smart connectivity needs of the Radio Frequency,
Memory and Display subsystems of mobile products: non-volatility and instant-on,
very low standby power, low dynamic power, small form factor, single chip solutions
that power cycle easily and quickly. Hardware customization gives our devices
the ability to execute key actions faster than software implementations, and
at lower power.
Second, our ArcticLink and EOS S3 solution platforms combine mixed signal physical
functions, hard-wired logic and programmable logic on one device. Mixed signal
capability supports the trend toward serial connectivity in mobile applications,
where designers benefit from lower pin counts, simplified printed circuit board,
or PCB, layouts, simplified PCB interconnect and reduced signal noise. Adding
hard-wired intellectual property enables us to deliver more logic at lower cost
and lower power while the programmable logic allows us to provide solutions
that can be rapidly customized to differentiate products, add features and reduce
system development costs. This combination of mixed signal, hard-wired logic
and programmable logic enables us to deliver low cost, small form factor solutions
that can be customized for particular customer or market requirements while
lowering the total cost of ownership.
Third, we develop and integrate innovative IP cores, intelligent data processing
IP cores, or standard interfaces used in mobile products. We offer:
Sensor Processing IPs such as Flexible Fusion Engine, or FFE, Sensor Manager,
or Communications Manager;
Display and Visual Enhancement s such as VEE, DPO or LCD controller interfaces,
LVDS and MIPI;
Network IPs such as high speed Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitters,
or UARTs, to enable connectivity to Bluetooth devices;
Storage IPs such as Secure Digital High Capacity, or SDHC; and
Other IPs such as I2S, PCM, I2C, IRDA, PWM, and other general purpose interfaces.
Fourth, we develop and optimize a software framework for use in conjunction
with our sensor processing silicon platforms.
Fifth, our unique customer engagement model enables us to develop complete
solutions for target customers who wish to bring differentiated, mobile products
to market quickly and cost-effectively. We partner with customers to define
solutions specific to their requirements, and combine all of the above technologies
using one of our solution platforms, proven logic IP cores, custom FPGA logic,
software drivers, firmware and application software. We then work with these
customers to integrate and test solutions in their systems. The benefit of providing
complete solutions is that we effectively become a virtual extension of our
customers engineering organization.
