Irvine chip startup Solarflare Communications Inc. promoted two people who have ties to other local chipmakers.
Martin Porter, 39, now is vice president of software development. Danny Shamlou, 44, is vice president of mixed-signal chip design.
Porter is set to develop and manage software for Solarflare’s Solarstorm line of controller chips.
He spent five years at Newport Beach-based chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. before heading to Irvine-based Level 5 Networks Inc., which Solarflare bought in 2006.
Shamlou served for more than 15 years in various posts as general manager and vice president of engineering at Conexant and at spinoff Mindspeed Technologies Inc. of Newport Beach.
Before moving to Solarflare, he was vice president of engineering for Starport System Inc. in Irvine, a startup which makes radio frequency identification chips.
Solarflare is one of the county’s best funded startups. In October, the company raised about $15 million, bringing its total raised to $130 million.
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Kingston’s Fountain Valley testing lab: company had $4.5 billion revenue last year |
Its chips and controllers go into servers made by Dell Inc. and IBM Corp., which sell them to companies for their data centers. Solarflare’s chips allow higher speed networks to be hooked up to lower capacity ones.
Conexant Lawyer
Conexant has hired a chief legal officer who’s done stints at several local tech companies.
Mark Peterson, 45, is set to be general counsel in charge of Conexant’s corporate affairs, compliance reporting, mergers and acquisitions transactions and intellectual property.
Peterson reports to Chief Executive Dan Artusi.
He replaces Dennis O’Reilly, who left Conexant last fall.
Peterson hails from Anaheim’s Targus Group International Inc., which markets laptop bags and computer accessories.
Before Targus, he spent almost a decade at Irvine’s Meade Instruments Corp., a maker of telescopes.
Peterson was at Meade while the company underwent a stock options backdating probe in 2006.
He also served as vice president of international operations and managing director of Meade’s European division.
Before Meade, Peterson spent six years as a corporate lawyer for O’Melveny & Myers LLP, which has an office in Newport Beach.
Peterson earned his law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
He also holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University’s School of Accountancy in Provo, Utah.
Big Blue Money
A handful of computer science students at the University of California, Irvine, landed a $25,000 research grant from IBM Corp.
UC Irvine is one of several universities to receive grants from Big Blue. The grants are geared toward getting software developers together to share information.
Graduate researchers at UCI are set to use the money to beef up their development labs.
“The trend is to equip developers’ desks with multiple, larger monitors and to equip community areas with tiled displays through which vast amounts of information can be shared,” spokesman Matt Wyman said.
Other schools that received grants include Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, North Carolina State University, Germany’s Saarland University and the University of Calgary.
Chinese Box
Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp. is working with China’s Coship Electronics Co. to make what it calls the first high-definition set-top box in China.
Broadcom designed the chip that goes into the set-top box, which is being released in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
In addition to digital video recording, the boxes are designed with video-on-demand and pay-per-view features.
“These advanced capabilities and services will allow the Chinese viewing audience to have more control and flexibility when watching their favorite television shows and for upcoming sporting events during the summer Olympic games in August,” Broadcom officials said.
Boost Boarders
Irvine’s Boost Mobile LLC, a Sprint Nextel Corp. unit that markets cell phones and pre-paid wireless service to the under-30 set, signed on some professional snowboarders for its latest commercial.
Boost hired Keir Dillon, Alexis Waite, Danny Kass and Luke “Dingo” Trembath.
In commercials, the snowboarders answer Boost Mobile’s tag line, “Where you at?” The spots are set to air on Fuel TV, a cable channel geared toward extreme sports enthusiasts.
Shot in Oregon, Utah and California, the 30-second commercial features Dillon, Waite, Kass and Trembath on and off the snow with Boost Mobile phones.
Boost Mobile worked on the commercials with Irvine-based ChopShop TV, an editing and production company.
Kingston’s ‘Remarkable’ 2007
Privately held Kingston Technology Co., the Fountain Valley-based maker of memory products for computers and consumer electronics, gave a glimpse at how it did last year.
For 2007, Kingston reported revenue of $4.5 billion, up 22% from 2006. The company doesn’t disclose profits.
“Reaching $4.5 billion is a remarkable achievement in the history of our company,” said John Tu, cofounder and president.
The boost in sales was driven by Kingston’s fast-growing flash memory business, the company said.
Roughly $1 billion in revenue came from flash last year, said spokesman David Leong.
Kingston got in to making flash memory back in 2003.
It competes with SanDisk Corp., the top maker of flash memory gear.
Earlier this year Kingston shifted its flash memory business into a separate unit called Kingston Digital Inc.
The unit makes memory cards for digital cameras, cell phones and other devices, plus USB drives and readers that allow memory cards to be read on computers.
Most of the company’s sales come from circuit boards with memory chips on them that go into computers.
Kingston, which got its start in 1987, has some 800 local workers.
