LucidLogix raises $18M for parallel graphics processing technology
LucidLogix Technologies has raised $18 million in a third round of funding for its business of tying together multiple graphics cards in a computer.
The company makes a chip that allows a computer to take advantage of multiple graphics chips in the same system. LucidLogix is hoping to exploit a hole in the strategies of graphics chip makers Nvidia, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices. (Intel Capital is an investor).
LucidLogix’s product isn’t a graphics chip. Rather, it’s a traffic cop that allows multiple graphics cards, including an integrated graphics chip set on a computers main circuit board, to function together in a parallel processing system. The other vendors can do this, but LucidLogix says it can do it more efficiently. It does so by balancing the load of processing so that each graphics chip stays busy.
The Kfar Netter, Israel-based start-up raised the round from Rho Ventures as well as existing investors Genesis Partners and Giza Venture Capital. That brings its total investment to $32 million. The company will use the money to commercialize its current products and develop new ones.
Rho Ventures’ graphics investments go as far back as Silicon Graphics. Moshe Steiner, chief executive, and co-founder Offir Remez started the company three years ago. They were joined by a familiar figure in the graphics chip industry, George Haber, who loved the idea (10 minutes into the pitch) and agreed to become chairman. They say they aren’t necessarily going head-to-head against the graphics chip vendors.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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