Media Contacts:
Mike Ziehl
Kenet Inc.
+1-781-942-4500 ext. 13
Leslie Drohan
Boldbrook Marketing
+ 1-508-836-4300
Company founders, technology have origins at MIT Lincoln Lab
Reading, Massachusetts, December 15, 2003 — Kenet Inc., a developer of mixed-signal semiconductor products, today formally launched the company and announced it has been awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the central research and development organization for the U.S. Department of Defense.
"We believe this contract award reflects on the strength of the Kenet team," said Kenet co-founder and chairman of the board, Dr. John Fan. "With a formidable combination of technology expertise drawn from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and proven success at the industry's leading semiconductor companies, this team has what it takes to establish and sustain Kenet as a market leader."
Under the DARPA contract*, Kenet will further develop the ability to monolithically integrate its mixed-signal solutions with large digital systems. Monolithic integration enables the realization of all required functionality on one single chip. Large one-chip solutions will be used to improve key government and commercial applications, such as radar and wireless communications.
Kenet was founded in April 2002 by a group of individuals that combines technical leadership from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and proven success in the entrepreneur community. Dr. Gerry Sollner, President and CEO, led the group at MIT that developed Kenet's core technology and also was elected an IEEE Fellow for his work on high-speed semiconductor devices. Dr. Michael Anthony, CTO, was a staff member in Sollner's group and invented several of the patented technologies Kenet exclusively licensed from MIT. Kenet?s chairman, John Fan, who is the president, CEO, and founder of Kopin Corporation, also was instrumental in leveraging technology developed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory into success for Kopin, the leading provider of advanced semiconductor materials and miniature flat-panel displays. CFO Paul Mitchell previously was Kopin?s CFO and, along with Fan, led Kopin to a successful IPO in 1992. Rounding out the management team is vice president of marketing, Mike Ziehl, formerly marketing director at both GlobespanVirata and Analog Devices.
"The strength of Kenet's technology is in its foundation in patented technologies developed at MIT Lincoln Lab," said Sollner. "Based on more than ten years of semiconductor research, this technology enables us to set a new standard in mixed-signal solutions for portable consumer and communications applications. These solutions will operate at the leading edge of performance while offering substantial improvements in silicon area and power consumption."
Joining Fan and Sollner on Kenet's board of directors are Eric Copeland, a general partner at Venrock Associates; Dr. Bor-Yeu Tsaur, executive vice president of display operations for Kopin Corp.; Meth Jiaravanont, and Dr. Vallobh Vimolvanich, cofounder of TelecomAsia Ltd.
In addition to its board of directors, Kenet also has a board of advisors comprising entrepreneurs with deep operational expertise and proven track records in the semiconductor industry. It includes Drew Peck, partner at Crimson Ventures and former managing director and head of semiconductor research at SG Cowen Securities. Also on the board of advisors are Dev Gupta, founder and chairman of the board of Narad Networks and startups, MaxComm Technologies and Dagaz Technologies (both acquired by Cisco); and Dr. Tian Liou, former president and CEO of Kendin Communications, a provider of high-performance ICs for the communications and networking markets (acquired by Micrel).
The Kenet name and logo are trademarks of Kenet, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.
* This work is supported by DARPA under SSC SD Contract No.
N66001-03-C-8047
About Kenet
Kenet Inc., is an early stage, fabless semiconductor company specializing in mixed signal technologies for portable consumer and communications devices. Kenet is backed by venture funding from investors including Venrock Associates, Kopin Corporation, and CP Group. Headquartered at 55 Walkers Brook Drive, Reading, MA 01867, Kenet can be contacted at 781-942-4500 ext. 13 or at www.kenetinc.com
About DARPA
The DARPA mission is to develop imaginative, innovative and often high-risk research ideas offering a significant technological impact that will go well beyond the normal evolutionary developmental approaches; and, to pursue these ideas from the demonstration of technical feasibility through the development of prototype systems.
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