At first it seemed that EDA software was a no-brainer, after all, we had a premier logic optimization tool. Our advisors told us that EDA was no longer interested in improved optimization, they wanted top-down system-on-a-chip tools. I soon became enamored with a hardware product, using our boundary math advantage for better design, placement, and routing. Basically, optimizing logic for hardware designs that were a decade old did not solve the actual problem, which was antiquated hardware architecture. So an initial justification for EDA tools quickly turned into an argument for new hardware.

We developed plans for manufacturing hardware, the Use of Proceeds (UoP) memo examines different funding scenarios. After a while, I thought it best to elucidate our strategic approach and principles as hardware company.

Finally, when it became apparent that we were not going to find sufficient funding for a hardware start-up, we recrafted the business strategy back to software EDA support tools.