 | |
| Formerly | Renaissance Microsystems |
|---|---|
| Industry | Semiconductor design |
| Founded | 1993; 33 years ago (1993) |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | 1997 (1997) |
| Website | exp.com at theWayback Machine (archived 1997-07-07) |
Exponential Technology (originallyRenaissance Microsystems) was a vendor ofPowerPCmicroprocessors. The company was founded by George Taylor and Jim Blomgren in 1993. The company's plan was to useBiCMOS technology to produce very fast processors for theApple Computer market. Logic used 3-level ECL circuits (single-ended for control logic, and differential for datapaths) while RAM structures used CMOS. Rick Shriner was theCEO. Their chips were manufactured byHitachi.
Their product, the ExponentialX704, was advertised to run at 533 MHz, but the first version of the device only ran at about 400 MHz, still significantly faster than the 233 MHzPowerPC 604e used in Macintosh computers at the time. This lower frequency along with small level-onecaches, produced systems which had good but not stellar performance. This allowedMotorola (Apple's traditional processor vendor), to convince the computer maker that Motorola's future roadmap would produce processors with similar performance, hence making it less attractive for Apple to rely on the smallstartup company for critical technology.
Due to Apple's financial problems at the time, Exponential starting marketing the device toApple Macintosh clone makers such asPower Computing andUMAX.
In order to diversify into other markets, a second design team was started underPaul Nixon inAustin, TX to build a BiCMOSIntelx86 processor.
Due to Apple's decision to close off the Macintosh clone market, Exponential ran out of possible customers for their chips. The company closed in 1997, though the Texas design team run by Paul Nixon continued on as EVSX. EVSX changed its name toIntrinsity, Inc. in 2000[1] and was purchased by Apple in 2010.[2]