Author: Martin Weis (The author is a semiconductor expert at Slovak Chips Competence Center and a professor at the Slovak University of Technology.) Eleven years ago, the company Tachyum promised a revolution: the Prodigy processor would be the smallest, the fastest, and the greenest in terms of energy efficiency. Its performance was supposed to outperform Nvidia chips by a factor of 21. Today, after years of development, the chip is still not finished, the promised investments have not arrived, and the Czech branch is facing insolvency proceedings. What went wrong? First of all, it should be said that it is…
Author: Martin Weis
(The author is a semiconductor expert at Slovak Chips Competence Center and a professor at the Slovak University of Technology.)
Eleven years ago, the company Tachyum promised a revolution: the Prodigy processor would be the smallest, the fastest, and the greenest in terms of energy efficiency. Its performance was supposed to outperform Nvidia chips by a factor of 21. Today, after years of development, the chip is still not finished, the promised investments have not arrived, and the Czech branch is facing insolvency proceedings. What went wrong?
First of all, it should be said that it is great — not only for Slovakia, but for Europe as well — that such companies are created at all. If Europe wants to catch up with Asia and the United States in the semiconductor industry, projects like Tachyum are essential. In short, Europe needs more technology startups; without them, our dependence will continue. That is also why I believe Tachyum, as an idea and as a project, makes sense. Yes, not everything ends in success. But as the saying goes: if you don’t try, you won’t know.
Tachyum owner Radoslav Danilák knows this well. He is no newcomer in the chip world. He has already completed two successful projects and even managed to sell them. In 2012, startup SandForce was acquired by LSI for 377 million dollars. His second company, Skyera, found a new owner in Western Digital in 2014. Danilák worked at Nvidia and AMD, contributed to more than one hundred patents, and received the Pribina Cross from President Kiska. His technical credibility is beyond doubt. So why did his most ambitious project fall into crisis? As Denník E reported, the promised investment of 220 million dollars still had not arrived three months after it was announced, and Tachyum employees were reportedly receiving their salaries late.
Both of the previous projects I mentioned solved specific technical problems. That is why they also found end customers more easily. SandForce addressed the rapid wear of low-cost flash memory — its chip enabled Apple to use cheaper memory in MacBook Air models.
Read more: https://e.dennikn.sk/5162254/preco-sa-slovensky-sen-o-prelomovom-cipe-ani-po-desiatich-rokoch-nepremenil-na-realitu/
