SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Tabula, Inc., a privately held fabless semiconductor company developing 3-D Programmable Logic Devices (3PLD), today introduced Spacetime, a groundbreaking programmable logic architecture that uses time as a third dimension to deliver unmatched capability and affordability. Tabula achieves this breakthrough by combining the Spacetime hardware that dynamically reconfigures logic, memory, and interconnect at multi-GHz rates with the Spacetime compiler that manages this ultra-rapid reconfiguration transparently. Tabula will leverage Spacetime to deliver 3-D devices that have significant density advantages and dramatically shorter interconnects when compared to FPGAs that use 2-D architectures. In addition, Tabula will deliver these benefits while preserving a traditional design methodology. As a result, Spacetime will enable a new class of programmable devices that combines the capability of an ASIC with the ease of use of an FPGA at price points suitable for volume production.

“The key to Spacetime and its many advantages is resolving the interconnect problem intrinsic to FPGAs,” said Steve Teig, Tabula’s President and CTO. “Almost 90% of the core area of FPGAs is devoted to the implementation and control of interconnect. Besides driving up die size and product cost, the long connections also limit performance and make timing closure more difficult. If you’re going to achieve a breakthrough in programmable capability and affordability, you have to make the interconnect more efficient, and that’s what Spacetime does.”

Tabula was founded by EDA pioneer Steve Teig and is led by Dennis Segers, former CEO of Matrix Semiconductor and former Senior Vice President and member of the board of directors at Xilinx. With support from premier venture capitalists including Greylock Partners, Benchmark Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Crosslink Capital, Balderton Capital, DAG Ventures, and Integral Capital, Tabula has over 80 patents granted around the Spacetime architecture with over 70 more pending. Tabula is developing a family of general-purpose 3PLD devices that are based on the Spacetime architecture. Tabula will initially target the programmable logic market but will also extend the benefits of programmability into markets that FPGAs cannot serve cost-effectively.

Tabula Inc.