VCs back programmable logic as money returns to semiconductors

For example, Tabula has just raised $108million, taking investment in the FPGA newcomer to more than $200m. Achronix, which is developing asynchronous fpgas, has raised more than $110m, including $45m in January. Yet both companies have shipped only handfuls of parts. Tabula has named networking giant Cisco Systems as a Tier 1 customer, so it must be doing something right. Achronix' business model made more sense when Altera and Xilinx did not have parts with high speed transceivers in their portfolio. But now both have 28nm parts featuring 12.5Gbit/s transceivers, is that edge still there? Intel must think so and is providing 22nm foundry services to the company. But it's not all wine and roses. Another company which came out of the darkness at much the same time as Tabula – Tier Logic – went under because it couldn't convince the money men to hand over more cash; this despite the fact it had working silicon and, to some, more convincing technology. Getting your hands on venture capital can be more to do with who you know than the technology being developed. So are Achronix and Tabula well connected or have they made a significant breakthrough that will not only broaden the potential application for the technology, but also threaten the dominance of Altera and Xilinx?