Frequently Asked Questions

Banderacom Frequently Asked Questions

How did Banderacom get started?
Banderacom was founded in 1999 by a veteran team from the microprocessor and communications semiconductor industries.

Banderacom received funding from Austin Ventures, Crossroads Systems, Intel Corporation, and Jato Tech Ventures. Banderacom is a member of InfiniBand Trade Association.
What services does Banderacom offer?
Semiconductor chips and a development environment to create InfiniBand™ systems.

Banderacom is a privately held, fabless semiconductor company located in Austin, Texas, focused on dramatically increasing the performance, scalability, reliability, flexibility, and time-to-market of networking, storage, and server system manufacturer's products by providing flexible, interoperable, high performance semiconductors based on the InfiniBand™ standard.
What type of things did you look for when reviewing the market for opportunities?
We looked for a fast paced, standards-based market to leverage our networking and storage capabilities where we can offer better interoperability and a more rapid time to market.
What product space is Banderacom addressing?
We are focused on InfiniBand™ and are working directly with key networking, server and storage systems manufacturers to help accelerate the performance and time to market of silicon.
Describe where Banderacom chips will be used?
There are three primary applications: Hosts (servers), switches, targets (storage equipment) peripheral buses, gigabit Ethernet. Our architecture can plan on all three applications, but target and switching are our primary focus.
Who are your competitors?
We are the first VC funded startup specifically created to build and deploy InfiniBand™ products.

While IBM and Intel have announced plans to develop products in the space and we expect other companies to play in smaller segments of this space, Banderacom is the only company focused on addressing all segments of the market needs.
Do you have any partners?
Yes. Wind River was announced October 24, 2000 and future announcements are forthcoming.
Do you have any customers?
Yes. We are not able to disclose the company names at this time. However expect to see further announcements on these relationships later this year.
When do expect to launch your first product?
We released an architectural announcement on October 24, 2000

Our goal is to inform the market about our products and technology when they are 'real' and available to the market. We believe this is a more credible process and sets the appropriate expectations among our customers and the marketplace.
What is the size of the market Banderacom is targeting?
According to the Internet Economy Indicators, the global e-commerce market is expected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2001. In 1999, there were 171 million online users worldwide and forecasts show there will be more than 1 billion online users by 2005, with 10 million networked homes by 2003.

Consider that wherever there is a server and storage system hooked into the Internet - you will see InfiniBand™.
What are you doing about interoperability?
We are working with partners and customers on plans to collaborate and solve.
How many employees do you have?
While we can't divulge the exact number of employees, we have had our first design engineering team staffed and in place for several months. We are in the process of building the remainder of our second design engineering team.
How are you recruiting talent?
We have a specific profile and culture we are committed to build and maintain at Banderacom. While we are growing and recruiting rapidly, we are only bringing in the best and the brightest to help drive the InfiniBand™ revolution.

We have found great talent in Texas and continue to recruit on the east and west coast.
How does Banderacom intend to use the funding?
The Series A round enables Banderacom to continue its mission to offer breakthrough products and solutions to enhance the overall performance and time-to-market of silicon.

We are building premier technology and buying the intellectual property to bring this technology to market.
Why did you change your name? What did INH stand for?
INH was a place holder for a name, it actually stood for "Insert Name Here"

Banderacom, reflects its "flagship" positioning with InfiniBand™ communications semiconductors. While Banderacom is based in Austin, Texas, bandera, meaning flag in Spanish, is also the name of another Texas city.
Will InfiniBand™ benefit the telecom industry and how?
Initially InfiniBand™ will be deployed as a server infrastructure fabric.

This will benefit the entire communications industry by speeding the rate of communication into server farms. Over time, InfiniBand™ form factors and manageability will benefit traditional telecom environments by enabling a shift from proprietary switch fabric solutions to industry standard fabric solutions.
What happens to Fibre Channel with the advent of InfiniBand™?
Think of Fibre Channel as a super subset set of InfiniBand™

Fibre Channel is a storage area networking technology. For connections to the drive, Fibre Channel will make sense for the next several years. Drive vendors will likely adopt InfiniBand™ interfaces once the technology is cost effective. However, this is several years away.
Is PCI being replaced by InfiniBand™ in 2005?
We see InfiniBand™ dominating the data center by that time.

Yes. PCI will be a legacy only connection, similar to ISA 3 years ago in servers.
If you have a PCI bus on the server does it slow down this architecture?
InfiniBand™ connection to the Server's memory subsystem through PCI is not as efficient as direct connection. However, InfiniBand™ enables several key features within the fabric that will greatly increase the I/O subsystem when compared to I/O cards built around a PCI only system.
When will you have a Plugfest?
The InfiniBand Trade Association has sanctioned a Compliance and Interoperability working group to develop testing structures and plugfests. The first event is likely to happen in the first half of 2001.