Transputer inventor gets funding for his latest semiconductor start up

Early-stage investment

Prelude Trust plc of Cambridge, a specialist in early stage investments, has made an initial investment of £625,000 in XMOS Limited, for a 22.3 per cent shareholding in the company.

Bristol-based XMOS, is a fables (that is, it does not manufacture its own chips) semiconductor company developing new microprocessor technology.

The company, a spin out from Bristol University, says its novel processor architecture emulates hardware, providing a new way of implementing hardware designs.

For those familiar with the history of microprocessor architecture, the name Xmos could be resonant of another company, Inmos, one of the great failures of the UK industry. There is a connection: David May, professor of computer science at Bristol University, and inventor of the Transputer chip which Inmos was set up to commercialise, is also the designer of the Xmos semiconductor and founder of the company.