Louis DiNardo

Exar Corp. engages in the design, development, and sale of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits; as well as advanced sub-system solutions for the industrial and embedded systems, high-end consumer, and infrastructure markets. Its product portfolio includes power management, connectivity, and communications products; as well as data and storage products for network security and storage optimization solutions. The company was founded in April 1971 and is headquartered in San Jose, CA.

Linear Technology Corp. engaged in designing, manufacturing, and selling analog integrated circuits. The company was founded by Robert C. Dobkin, Robert Widlar, and Robert H. Swanson in September 1981 and was headquartered in Milpitas, CA.

Xicor, Inc., a California corporation, was founded in 1978. It is a manufacturer of nonvolatile semiconductor devices including EEPROMs, NOVRAMs, EEPOT nonvolatile digital potentiometers and microperipheral. It also processes transitioning of product development effort to the area of high performance analog mixed-signal integrated circuits

Intersil Corp. designs and manufactures analog semiconductors. The company offers a portfolio of application specific standard products and general purpose proprietary products for the industrial, computing, consumer, and communications markets. The company was founded in August 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA.

Crest Semiconductors, Inc. provided analog, mixed signal integrated circuits, and internet protocol services. The company was founded on March 3, 2011 and was headquartered in Woodside, CA.

The IT industry is in the midst of a shift of seismic proportions. Driven by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon among others, new compute models such as social networking and cloud computing are changing the way organizations share information, collaborate and communicate. These applications are imposing new performance demands on existing data centers - the IT infrastructure core of an organization. Data centers consist of a large cluster of servers interconnected using network switch infrastructure. These increased performance requirements are contributing to increased server densities and expenses within the data center. Data centers need a cost-effective, power-efficient and reliable 10Gbps interconnect to efficiently scale compute performance. Three generations of history proves standards-based Ethernet over copper UTP (unshielded twisted pair) to be the most cost-effective interconnect technology for data centers. 10GBASE-T is the next generation standard (IEEE802.3an-2006) in Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) interconnects operating at 10 gigabits per second. Founded in 2004, Plato Networks is driving mainstream deployment of 10GBASE-T leveraging a disruptive and silicon-proven AASP™ - Adaptive Analog Signal Processing technology. Unlike multi-chip, power-hungry and unreliable solutions offered by competition, Plato's 10GBASE-T PHY solutions eliminate the need for external passive circuitry, reduce power dissipation by over 50%, required board real-estate by 60% and in the end bolster the resiliency of 10GBASE-T connectivity 'priming the pump' for explosive 10GbE adoption in data centers and enterprise networks. Plato Networks has built a seasoned organization that reflects the innovation and comprehensiveness of its technology/products as well as demonstrable knowledge in building a defensible and sustainable business. With all critical disciplines and expertise - Analog, DSP/Systems, Digital and Technology/Operations in-house, Plato has developed a scalable and results-driven organization that can tackle the challenges involved in designing such complex PHY systems. The team has a cumulative experience of over 200 years coming from successful organizations including Broadcom, Conexant, Cisco-Scientific Atlanta, Exar, IBM, Intel, National, and PMC-Sierra. Plato's investors - Crosslink Capital, Granite Ventures and STIC Investments bring broad and deep knowledge the in the communications semiconductor industry. With numerous test chips and a product developed to date, Plato has set a bench mark for a capital-efficient operating model in a fabless semiconductor company. Plato has developed a diverse body of intellectual property with 15+ patents in the pipeline for AASP and critical building-blocks in deep sub-micron CMOS technologies.