About CrossFire Technologies
CrossFire Technologies Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, is solving the AI to Memory Bottleneck with its patented Bridgelet™ and Direct Chiplet Interface™ (DCI) products. By removing the bottleneck, customers will maximize the return on CAPEX by better utilizing the accelerated computing power they are purchasing. CrossFire leverages years of experience in processor and interface innovation, having identified early on memory bottlenecks with the development of one of the first tensor processors. These bottlenecks not only affect CAPEX but given the volume and speed of data that is now being processed, customers face increasing OPEX. CrossFire’s innovative products also address this problem with a 10X reduction in energy use.
CrossFire is privately held, with executive offices located in the Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN area and satellite facilities in the Raleigh / Durham, NC area.
A Silicon Catalyst Portfolio Company
Silicon Catalyst is the only incubator + accelerator focused on the global semiconductor industry, including Chips, Chiplets, Materials, IP and Silicon fabrication-based Photonics, MEMS, Sensors, Life Science and Quantum. Silicon Catalyst has developed an unparalleled support ecosystem for its semiconductor start-ups, providing a strong network of Strategic Partners, technical and business advisors, investors and industry professionals who help companies launch and scale in the market. In addition, the incubator’s In-Kind Partners provide privileged access to services, expertise, and intellectual property that can help commercialize their companies’ technological innovation.
Kevin E. Atkinson, Founder and CEO
Kevin Atkinson has been solving accelerated computing challenges since he founded his first company, Digital Media Com (DMC) back in the late 90’s. At DMC, Kevin and his team solved how to transmit highly compressed video over telephone wires. They expanded their solutions to include coax, Ethernet and fiber optics, showcasing their high-speed serial I/O expertise. In 2001, MathStar acquired DMC for this expertise. At MathStar, Kevin was asked to develop a semiconductor architecture that could compile high level math equations directly into silicon. He proposed key architectural elements for one of the first Tensor processors. The architecture involved several hundred processors that were highly interconnected and could be reconfigured within a clock cycle – unheard of at the time. Kevin led the development of the most complex part of the architecture - a fixed-point single clock cycle multiply accumulator (MAC) running at over 1 GHz. The result was the fastest running single cycle multiplier in the world, which would eventually be sold to the leading DRAM supplier to help in developing their DRAM I/O technology. After his MathStar experience, Kevin sought a better way to develop highly interconnected systems than was currently available in the industry, so he founded CrossFire.
John Fryar, Chief Product and Marketing Officer
John is responsible for bringing CrossFire’s innovative interconnect technology to market and overseeing the product roadmap, business development and marketing departments. Over the course of John’s career, he has brought numerous products to market, including the award-winning LSI Xtreme2 Communications and Rapid Chip product families and Exar’s (now MaxLinear) next generation security and compression co-processors. He brings over 25 years of engineering, sales, marketing and business development experience in data center, security, networking and storage markets. John holds a BSEE in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering, from Tennesse Technological University and an MBA from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Prior to joining CrossFire, John held director of global alliances positions at TransCirrus and Extreme Networks; and product management, engineering and marketing positions at LSI Corporation and Exar Corporation (now MaxLinear)
