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- UltraSoC's unique debugging technology
Karl Heeks is Co-founder and CEO of UltraSoC Technologies, an early-stage company, backed by Octopus Ventures, pioneering a universal debugging technology which has enormous potential in markets ranging fromautomotive to mobile phones. We spoke to Karl about building his team and commercialising UltraSoC's unique technology.
What is unique about UltraSoC?
The functionality and performance of electronic products is defined by software that runs on the hardware chips. In modern products the software is very large and complicated and it runs on multiple chips. The software inherently contains bugs which must be removed so that safe and reliable products can go into the market place. We are developing a revolutionary way of debugging the software, which is designed for multiple processor architectures and is uniquely suitable for a whole range of next-generation products. Our product is called UltraDebug®, a universal debugging technology that opens the door to debugging complex systems where a range of software and hardware interacts.
What is the market for your product?
There is a massive potential market. In the US, half the cost of developing electronic products is spent on debugging and system verification, yet in spite of this the burden on the economies when things go wrong is enormous, currently around $60bn per year in the US alone. There have been numerous examples of bugs causing problems in a range of products recently; from recalls in the automotive sector to bugs in the operating systems of smart phones causing a range of problems from crashing and malfunction to even battery degradation.
How has UltraSoC developed recently?
Since closing £2m Series A funding from Octopus Ventures, we’ve been building a world-class team, which included adding to the board, specifically with a major figure from the semiconductor industry as Non-exec Chairman. This is where Bailey Fisher came in, introducing Matthew Trowbridge. Matthew is a major player in microcontrollers, previously CEO & then Chairman of Renesas Technology Europe. Matthew will provide leadership for the board, working closely with me to build customer partnership relations moving into our Series B round.
What does 2102 hold for UltraSoC?
In the next phase we will be working towards a further funding round which will facilitate growing our team and enable us to take UltraDebug® to market and produce a revenue stream, based on licensing the technology to major semiconductor companies.