# Abrizio

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**Abrizio** was a [fabless](/source/Fabless) semiconductor company which made switching fabric chip sets ([integrated circuits](/source/Integrated_circuit) for [computer network](/source/Computer_network) switches). Its chip set, the TT1, was used by several large system development companies as the core switch fabric in their high value communication systems.

## Founding

Abrizio was founded in 1997, by Professor [Nick McKeown](/source/Nick_McKeown) as a spinout of the Tiny-tera project at [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University).[1] It received [US$](/source/US_Dollar)6M of funding from [Benchmark Capital](/source/Benchmark_Capital) and [Sequoia Capital](/source/Sequoia_Capital).[2]

## Product and technology

The product name TT1 referred to "Tiny Tera" meaning a small, highly integrated semiconductor implementation of a terabit/s capacity switching fabric. The Stanford program demonstrated a scalable packet switch that had a terabit-per-second performance in [CMOS](/source/CMOS).[3] Abrizio was the first to introduce a more optimized Input-Buffered Output Queued Switch Fabrics, which addressed the memory efficiency issue of similar technologies.[1] Its technology made better use of memory, making the TT1 a less expensive product.[1] Abrizio's key technology was a sophisticated implementation of a [Wavefront arbiter](/source/Wavefront_arbiter) which allowed the switch to make complex arbitration decisions very quickly.

## Senior leadership

In 1998, Anders Swahn, who had been executive vice president of sales and marketing at Allied-Telesyn Inc., joined Abrizio as chief executive.[4] Abrizio's corporate colors were purple and yellow. The CEO of Abrizio was Anders Swahn. The CTO was McKeown who was taking a leave from his professorship at Stanford. Zubair Hussein was the V.P. of Engineering.

## Acquisition

Abrizio was acquired on August 24, 1999, by [PMC-Sierra](/source/PMC-Sierra) for 4,352,000 shares of PMC-Sierra stock, worth at that time $400M.[5] After the acquisition, the former Abrizio development team completed the TTx switch chip set. In the wake of the bursting of the [telecom bubble](/source/Dot-com_bubble), PMC-Sierra laid off most of the former Abrizio team in 2001.[6]

## References

1. Kloth, Axel K. (2018). *Advanced Router Architectures*. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-4200-2684-9.

1. [Sequoia Capital small article](http://www.sequoiacap.com/company/abrizio/)

1. Wirbel, Loring (1999-08-25). ["PMC-Sierra offers $400M for packet-switching startup"](https://www.eetimes.com/pmc-sierra-offers-400m-for-packet-switching-startup/). *EETimes*. Retrieved 2022-08-17.

1. EE Times [PMC-Sierra offers $400M for packet-switching startup](http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG19990825S0006)

1. Electronic Times August 30, 1999 [PMC-Sierra to Buy Abrizio - Company Business and Marketing - Brief Article](http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EKF/is_35_45/ai_55915081)

1. Light Reading Jan 17, 2003 [More Cuts at PMC-Sierra](http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=27032)

## External links

- [Sequoia Capital](http://www.sequoiacap.com)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Abrizio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrizio) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrizio?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.