Tensilica

Tensilica Inc. was a Silicon Valley company that developed semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) cores. Founded in 1997 by Chris Rowen, Tensilica developed configurable and extensible Xtensa processor cores, delivered as synthesizable RTL, ranging from low-power cache-less microcontrollers to performance-oriented SIMD, VLIW DSP, and neural-network processors, as well as HiFi audio and voice DSP IP used in products such as the Espressif ESP32 and Microsoft HoloLens. In April 2013, Tensilica was acquired by Cadence Design Systems for approximately $326 million and continues to operate as Cadence Tensilica, licensing processor IP to chipmakers for embedded, mobile, and IoT system-on-chip designs.