PLX Technology was a manufacturer of

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

s focused on

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a high-speed standard used to connect hardware components inside computers. It is designed to replace older expansion bus standards such as Peripher ...

and

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

technologies. On August 12, 2014, Broadcom Inc. (formerly Avago Technologies), acquired the company.

History

The company was founded in 1986 by Mike Salameh. On April 7, 1999, during 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 ...

, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

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 ...

. By July 1999, shares were up 426% since the IPO price. In July 2000, the company opened an office in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. In May 2003, the company acquired HiNT for $12.7 million in cash and stock. In May 2004, the company acquired NetChip Technology. In August 2008, the company launched three PCIe switch devices with integrated

direct memory access Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer systems that allows certain hardware subsystems to access main system computer memory, memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU). Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed i ...

engines. In October 2008, Ralph Schmitt was named president and CEO of the company, replacing co-founder Mike Salameh. In January 2009, the company acquired Oxford Semiconductor for 5.6 million shares of PLX common stock, and a promissory note for $14.2 million. In April 2009, the company released new PCIe switches. In November 2009, the company completed a new design on 40 nm process technology at

TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is one of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies, the world' ...

, a Half-node of TMSCs 45 nm process. In January 2010, the company shipped its one-millionth

network attached storage Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. In this context, the term "NAS" can refer to both the technology and systems ...

device. In September 2010, the company acquired Teranetics for $36 million. In October 2011, the company sold its development centre in

Abingdon-on-Thames Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish on the River Thames in the Vale of the White Horse district of Oxfordshire, England. The Historic counties of England, historic county town of Berksh ...

, IP licences, and a 40-person team to OCZ. In April 2012, Integrated Device Technology announced an agreement to acquire the company. However, in December 2012, the agreement was terminated after the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...

challenged the merger. In September 2012, the company sold its

10GBASE-T 10 Gigabit Ethernet (abbreviated 10GE, 10GbE, or 10 GigE) is a group of computer networking technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second. It was first defined by the IEEE 802.3ae-2002 standard. Unli ...

assets to Aquantia Corporation. On August 12, 2014, Broadcom Inc. acquired the company.

References

{{Dot-com Bubble 1986 establishments in California 2014 disestablishments in California 1999 initial public offerings 2014 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1986 American companies disestablished in 2014 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Computer companies established in 1986 Computer companies disestablished in 2014 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Dot-com bubble