MoSys, Inc., originally Monolithic System Technology (MoST), was a
fabless semiconductor design company founded in 1991. The company primarily designed
memory chips and were especially known for their
Multibank DRAM and
1T-SRAM technologies—the latter used on
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
's
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
and
GameCube
The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...
video game consoles.
History
MoSys was incorporated in San Jose, California, on September 16, 1991, as Monolithic System Technology. The company was co-founded by Fu-Chieh Hsu, who also served as its chairman and president until December 2004. Joined by Fu-Chieh were Wingyu Leung and Gary Banta, both
vice president
A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
s of design engineering. The initial design team staffed engineers poached from
Integrated Device Technology
Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT), was an American semiconductor company headquartered in San Jose, California. The company designed, manufactured, and marketed low-power, high-performance mixed-signal semiconductor products for the adva ...
,
ISSI,
Rambus
Rambus Inc. is an American technology company that designs, develops and licenses chip interface technologies and architectures that are used in digital electronics products. The company, founded in 1990, is well known for inventing RDRAM ...
, and Plus Logic. By 1994, the company had received $7.5 million in venture funding.

The company's first major product was a specialized type of
dynamic random-access memory
Dynamics (from Greek language, Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' "power (disambiguation), power") or dynamic may refer to:
Physics and engineering
* Dynamics (mechanics), the study of forces and t ...
that Monolithic termed
Multibank DRAM (MDRAM). The initial entry in this series of chips was a 4-Mb chip, composed of 16 cells of
16-bit
16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors.
A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...
-wide 16-kB memory; a simple interface on each of the cells connects them to a high-speed bus on the chip. On each
leading edge and trailing edge of the chip-enable pulse, memory arrays output data onto the internal bus, achieving a 32-bit word on every pulse. MDRAM secured design wins in July 1994 with
Tseng Labs,
Trident Microsystems, and
S3 Inc. using the chips in their
graphics accelerator cards.
Access time
Access time is the time delay or latency between a request to an electronic system, and the access being initiated or the requested data returned.
In computer and software systems, it is the time interval between the point where an instructio ...
was rated at 15
ns, compared to 60 ns of contemporary chips. MDRAM required a proprietary interface and could not be adapted to the
SIMM
A SIMM (single in-line memory module) is a type of memory module used in computers from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. It is a printed circuit board upon which multiple random-access memory Integrated circuit chips are attached to one or ...
card standard for
desktop computer
A desktop computer, often abbreviated as desktop, is a personal computer designed for regular use at a stationary location on or near a desk (as opposed to a portable computer) due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuratio ...
memory of its day. Volume production, handled by an outside fabricator, was achieved in late 1994.

In July 1998, Monolithic introduced a series of
pipelined-burst static RAM chips for the
notebook computer
A notebook computer or notebook is, historically, a laptop whose length and width approximate that of letter paper ().
The term ''notebook'' was coined to describe slab-like portable computers that had a letter-paper footprint, such as Epson's ...
market. In September 1998 they introduced
1T-SRAM, a
pseudo-static random-access memory technology. Unlike true static RAM, 1T-SRAM is essentially dynamic RAM, which requires each
memory cell to be
refreshed constantly. However, 1T-SRAM pairs each bank of cells with true SRAM
cache
Cache, caching, or caché may refer to:
Science and technology
* Cache (computing), a technique used in computer storage for easier data access
* Cache (biology) or hoarding, a food storing behavior of animals
* Cache (archaeology), artifacts p ...
of the same capacity; when more than one read/write operation occurs within a bank, the on-chip memory controller redirects access to the cache, allowing the cells within the bank to be refreshed. All banks not involved in a given transaction are meanwhile refreshed in the background. This effectively achieves SRAM-like performance, without the need for
wait state
A wait state is a delay experienced by a computer processor when accessing external memory or another device that is slow to respond.
Computer microprocessors generally run much faster than the computer's other subsystems, which hold the data the ...
s for every recharge cycle. The ''1T'' in ''1T-SRAM'' stands for 1 transistor; in dynamic RAM, typically only one
transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
–capacitor pair is needed to build one memory cell, while static RAM commonly requires six transistors. The academics Bruce Jacob, Spencer W. Ng, David T. Wang, writing in the book ''Memory Systems'' (2008), called the name a misnomer: "
-transistor static RAMis not really possible, but it makes for a catchy name".
In 1999,
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
signed a contract with MoSys to use 1T-SRAM in its codenamed Dolphin video game console, later unveiled as the
GameCube
The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...
in 2001. Over 25 million units of 1T-SRAM were produced up to October 2002. A newer version of 1T-SRAM, dubbed 1T-SRAM Classic, was patented and introduced in 2006. Nintendo re-entered a contract with Monolithic to use it in the
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...
, in 2006.
The company began narrowing its chip sales in 1998, in favor of licensing its patents to other semiconductor memory companies. In September 2000, Monolithic's board members voted to reincorporate the company in
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
. The company still operated within California, relocating its research office to nearby
Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States.
Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...
by June 2001. The same month, the company filed its
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
, mediated through
A. G. Edwards. The company's stock rose 12 percent within the first day of its launch, leading to a net proceed of $51 million for Monolithic. ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' saw this as a rekindling of interest in technology companies in the stock market, which had fallen in the twilight of the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...
.
In February 2004,
Synopsys
Synopsys, Inc. is an American electronic design automation (EDA) company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that focuses on silicon design and verification, silicon intellectual property and software security and quality. Synopsys sup ...
announced that it would acquire Monolithic for
US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
432 million. However, a month later, Synopsys terminated their agreement to buy out Monolithic and paid the company a $10 million termination fee as part of the merger contract. This came after Synopsys had switched the terms of their acquisition, proposing to Monolithic a $13.50-per-share all-cash offer, incurring a very high premium. Monolithic followed with a lawsuit in Delaware courts seeking to force Synopsys to finish their acquisition. Monolithic dropped the suit in July 2004 without payment or liability. In late December 2004, following ill-health and a tough year for the company, chairman Fu-Chieh resigned from Monolithic, with
chief financial officer
A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...
Mark Voll taking the mantle.
Monolithic had, by the end of 2005, 76 full-time employees—25 executives in Delaware and 51 engineers in the company's research and development lab in Sunnyvale. In May 2006, the company formally renamed themselves to MoSys.
By the late 2010s MoSys had pivoted to designing chips for security,
telecommunications
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
, and
datacenter
A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.
Since IT operations are crucial for business ...
s. In December 2021, they merged with Peraso Technologies, a designer of
mmWave semiconductor, to emerge as Peraso Inc.
Citations
References
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External links
* {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981205230711/mosys.com, title=Official website, date=December 5, 1998
1991 establishments in California
2021 disestablishments in California
2001 initial public offerings
2021 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 1991
American companies disestablished in 2021
Computer companies established in 1991
Computer companies disestablished in 2021
Defunct computer companies based in California
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
Computer memory companies
Fabless semiconductor companies
Electronics companies established in 1991
Electronics companies disestablished in 2021
Manufacturing companies based in San Jose, California
Semiconductor companies of the United States
Technology companies established in 1991
Technology companies disestablished in 2021