About Inphi (now Marvell)
Inphi designed high-speed chips that move data between servers, switches and optical links in data centers and telecom networks. It was not a processor maker, and its parts sat in the interconnect layer between compute and the network. Marvell completed its acquisition of Inphi on April 20, 2021, paying $66 in cash plus 2.323 Marvell shares for each Inphi share. The company no longer operates independently, and its products and brand have been folded into Marvell's data infrastructure and optical portfolio, so this record is best read as a historical entry.
Inphi (now Marvell) was founded in 2000 and is based in Santa Clara, California, United States. It is listed under Custom Silicon, Photonic Computing.
Compute Technologies
- PAM4 DSPs
- Optical PHYs
What Inphi (now Marvell) works on
Custom Silicon
Custom silicon means a company designs its own chips for its own products or data centers instead of buying standard parts. The chip is made by a foundry such as TSMC, but the design belongs to the customer.
Photonic Computing
Photonic computing uses light instead of electricity to carry or process information. Photons have no charge, so light in a waveguide does not cause the resistive heating that current in a wire does, though lasers and modulators still use power, and many wavelengths can share one waveguide. The industry has two quite different parts: moving data with light, and computing with light.
Also in United States
II-VI/Finisar (now Coherent), GlobalFoundries, Coherent, Oxmiq Labs, Applied Materials
