Sandburst Scoops $15M

Chip startup Sandburst Corp. this week clinched $15 million in the companys fourth round of funding -- money it is planning to use to crack new markets.

NeoCarta Ventures Inc. led the fourth round, and new investor SpaceVest came on board. Existing investors Greylock, Matrix Partners, 3i US, Investor Growth Capital, and Intel Capital were also involved.

Big-name switch vendors Enterasys Networks Inc. (NYSE: ETS) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) are already using Sandburst technology, and David Larson, the company’s director of technical marketing told NDCF that the company is expanding into new areas.

Previously, Sandburst has aimed its products at the high-end enterprise chassis market, although now the company is also going after the mid-range space, he says.

So, what has prompted this decision? Larson says that the technology within Sandburst’s QE2000 chip, which was unveiled last October, is opening up new possibilities (see Sandburst Upgrades Traffic Manager).The QE-2000 is a 20-Gbit/s traffic manager and fabric interface chip that forms part of Sandburst’s HiBeam chipset. Other members of the family include the FE-1000, a 10-Gbit/s packet processor, and the BME-3200 bandwidth management engine.

”This chip will allow us to expand our capabilities [at the high end] but also target the midrange space,” says Larson.

The latest round of financing brings Sandburst’s total funding to $72 million. Larson says that cash influx will be used to boost the company’s sales and production operations.

2005 promises to be a busy year for the Andover, Mass., vendor. As well as moving into the midrange, the company has got big plans for its existing technologies. “We will be making announcements around our packet processor and our fabric throughout the year,” says Larson.

The exec also predicts that more deals with other equipment manufacturers will be announced in 2005, although he was unwilling to provide any more specific details. “We will probably announce three or four this year."Larson’s optimism could be well placed. Things are looking rosy for manufacturers of network processors, as many of the world’s largest telecom equipment makers start incorporating the technology into their products. Last month a report from Heavy Reading reported that 10-Gbit/s network processors, like the FE-1000, are now shipping in volume (see HR Sees Boom in Net Processors and Net Processors Reach the Mainstream).

In addition to Sandburst, other vendors playing in this space include Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), AMC Corp., Bay Microsystems Inc., and EZchip Technologies.

The company was founded in 2000 by one "Arvind" (yes, he only goes by this name), the Johnson Professor of Technology at MIT.

— James Rogers, Johnson Site Editor, Next-Gen Data Center Forum