# Sonics

> Sonics, Inc. developed and licensed on-chip interconnect, memory scheduling and power management IP for semiconductor and electronics companies. Its products helped designers integrate complex systems-on-chip, manage competing data flows and reduce wasted energy. Facebook acquired its team and technology in 2019, when Sonics wound down its independent business.

- **Founded:** 1996
- **Headquarters:** San Jose, United States
- **Founders:** Grant A. Pierce (Co-founder and CEO), Drew E. Wingard (Co-founder and CTO)
- **Products:** SiliconBackplane, MemMax, SonicsSX, SonicsGN, SonicsStudio Director
- **Notable:** Reported four consecutive profitable quarters in December 2005., Reported more than four billion customer SoCs shipped and approximately 150 patent properties in historical company announcements., SonicsGN integrated more than 60 cores in Starblaze’s volume-production STAR1000 in 2018.

## Products & services

- **SiliconBackplane** — Interconnect IP linking processors, multimedia engines and other on-chip resources; included in Toshiba’s corporate-wide license.
- **MemMax** — Configurable memory scheduler that reorders DRAM requests while supporting per-block quality of service.
- **SonicsSX** — On-chip interconnect IP licensed alongside MemMax by MediaTek in January 2017.
- **SonicsGN** — Network-on-chip integration fabric; used to connect more than 60 cores in Starblaze’s STAR1000 SSD controller.
- **SonicsStudio Director** — Visual IP configuration, performance analysis and design automation environment with Tcl scripting.
- **ICE-Grain Power Architecture** — Configurable hardware, embedded control software and tools for fine-grained autonomous power management.
- **ICE-G1 Energy Processing Unit** — Licensable power management subsystem for exploiting circuit idle periods; supported third-party IP as well as Sonics NoCs.
- **ICE-P3** — EPU supporting dynamic voltage and frequency scaling; a December upgrade added more flexible control of internal and external resources.
- **Technical support and consulting** — Training, energy assessments, architecture recommendations and implementation assistance.

## Achievements

- Reported four consecutive profitable quarters in December 2005.
- Reported more than four billion customer SoCs shipped and approximately 150 patent properties in historical company announcements.
- SonicsGN integrated more than 60 cores in Starblaze’s volume-production STAR1000 in 2018.
- Facebook confirmed acquisition of the Sonics team and technology in March 2019.

## Latest updates

- **2018-02** — Announced Starblaze STAR1000 volume production and an automotive design partnership with Inomize.
- **2018-06** — Announced Synkom partnership for Japanese semiconductor design customers.
- **2019-03** — Facebook confirmed its acquisition; Sonics said it would wind down the business. Facebook described AR/VR as the initial focus.

## Links

- Website: http://www.sonicsinc.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sonics-inc-
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/sonicsinc

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Last updated: 2026-09-30