Arteris IP Acquires Semifore!

The semiconductor ecosystem consolidation continues with an interesting acquisition of an EDA company by an IP company. Having worked with both Arteris and Semifore over the past few years I can tell you by personal experience that this is one of those 1+1=3 types of acquisitions, absolutely.

Semifore was founded in 2006 by a team of system architecture experts focused on the hardware/software interface. Like many EDA companies back then, Semifore grew organically from blood sweat and beers amassing one of the most impressive customer lists I have seen for a company of its size. Semifore cofounders Rich Weber and Jamsheed Agahi are true EDA heros.

Arteris came to SemiWiki in 2011 so we experienced this incredible piece of IP history in real time. To date, we have published more than 100 blogs with Arteris garnering more than 1 million views. Semiconductor IP has always been a SemiWiki audience favorite and Arteris is a big part of that. As I have said before, never ever bet against Charlie Janac!

Arteris was founded in 2003 and not only originated but also dominated the commercially available NoC market. In an interesting plot twist, in 2013 Qualcomm acquired the Arteris FlexNoC product portfolio but Arteris retained the customers and licensing rights. Shortly there after Arteris launched new FlexNoC products and has continued to do so, again dominating the commercial NoC market.

In another interesting twist Arteris acquired EDA company Magillem adding IP-XACT based software development products. We worked with Magillem from 2012 up until their acquisition in 2020.

Which brings us back to Semifore. The product synergy between Magillem and Semifore was obvious and discussed in detail prior to the Arteris acquisition. Now that Arteris has both Magillem and Semifore, another IP disruption is taking place right before our eyes.

Another exciting start to another amazing year inside the semiconductor ecosystem!

Arteris Acquires Semifore to Accelerate System-on-Chip Development

Augmenting leading network-on-chip IP and IP deployment automation with the leading hardware/software interface automation solution

CAMPBELL, Calif. – January 10, 2023 – Arteris, Inc. (Nasdaq: AIP), a leading provider of system IP which accelerates system-on-chip (SoC) creation, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Semifore, Inc., a leading provider of hardware/software interface (HSI) technology. Semifore is used to effectively design, verify, document and help in the validation of the hardware-software integration that is essential to every SoC. Semifore’s technology is used by leading semiconductor and system companies across automotive, consumer electronics, communications, enterprise computing and other applications.

“The SoC is not done until the software drivers run,” said Richard Weber, founder and CEO of Semifore, Inc. “The combination of Arteris and Semifore will provide the scale needed to further deploy our register management technology for hardware-software interface to benefit new and existing customers looking to accelerate SoC designs.”

The addition of Semifore technologies and team expertise augments Arteris system IP and IP deployment automation with best-in-class register management products for effective software control of the IP and SoC hardware. This provides a single-source specification that auto-generates the SoC views needed across hardware designs and hardware-dependent software development including device drivers, firmware, verification and documentation. The unified view and automation of this critical SoC integration layer allow customers to accelerate hardware-software development and reduce the risks of costly SoC redesigns.

“Hardware-software integration is a key part of SoC development which our customers are trying to execute quickly and effectively, leveraging best-in-class system IP and SoC integration automation,” said K. Charles Janac, president and CEO of Arteris. “The addition of Semifore will complement our network-on-chip interconnect IP and expand our SoC solutions, addressing complex challenges that every project team faces today.”

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is not expected to be material to 2023 revenue or earnings.

About Arteris
Arteris is a leading provider of system IP for the acceleration of system-on-chip (SoC) development across today’s electronic systems. Arteris network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP and IP deployment technology enable higher product performance with lower power consumption and faster time to market, delivering better SoC economics so its customers can focus on dreaming up what comes next. Learn more at arteris.com.

About Semifore
Semifore, Inc. provides the CSRSpec™ CSR authoring language and CSRCompiler™, a complete register design solution for hardware-software interface verification and documentation. Semifore’s tools enable CSR design management from a single source specification. CSR specifications expressed in CSRSpec, SystemRDL, IP-XACT or spreadsheets are inputs to CSRCompiler. CSRCompiler then automatically generates Verilog and VHDL RTL; Verilog or C headers; Perl, IEEE IP-XACT, UVM, HTML web pages and Word or FrameMaker documentation. Learn more at semifore.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the transaction(s) described in this release, including regarding anticipated benefits. Forward-looking statements allow potential investors an opportunity to understand Company management’s beliefs and opinions regarding potential future outcomes, which may be used as a factor by potential investors in evaluating an investment. Although forward-looking statements are based upon what Company management believes may be reasonable future outcomes, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in a forward-looking statement. Therefore, such statements are not guarantees. Arteris assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in this release.

© 2004-2023 Arteris, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Arteris, Arteris IP, the Arteris IP logo, and the other Arteris marks found at https://www.arteris.com/trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Arteris, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Gina Jacobs
Arteris
+1 408 560 3044
newsroom@arteris.com

Investor Relations Contact:
Erica Mannion or Mike Funari
Sapphire Investor Relations, LLC
+1 617 542 6180
ir@arteris.com

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