Cyrus Afghahi co-founded Novelics in 2005 with a vision of dramatically enhancing embedded memory performance in semiconductor design. With more than 20 years of experience as a semiconductor industry professional, Dr. Afghahi has led strategic technology initiatives in low-power and high-speed very large-scale integration (VLSI) designs for advanced, high-performance applications.

Prior to co-founding Novelics, Dr. Afghahi was technical director for the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Broadcom Corporation, where he was involved in strategic special circuit and design decisions.

Before joining Broadcom, Dr. Afghahi held key technical and management positions at Intel Corporation, Ericsson Radio and Carlsted. At Intel he was responsible for RF circuit design and served as technical manager of high-performance sensor chips and memories. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Linkoping, Sweden. Dr. Afghahi holds more than 60 patents and has published 20 journal and conference articles.

Novelics co-founder Esin Terzioglu serves as chief technology officer for the company, overseeing technical strategy, hiring and organization. Dr. Terzioglu is responsible for managing the engineering projects and innovations for the company’s embedded memory technologies.Prior to co-founding Novelics, Dr. Terzioglu held key technical positions at Broadcom Corporation from 1999 to 2005, progressing from staff scientist to principal scientist. He led the development of four generations of embedded SRAM memory technology, contributing to industry-leading achievements in memory area efficiency, power and speed.

Dr. Terzioglu has published 11 technical papers in the areas of fabrication processes, device physics and superconducting electronics, and holds more than 50 patents, mainly in circuit design and semiconductor memory technologies.

Dr. Terzioglu received his bachelor’s of science in electrical engineering from the University of Rochester, his master’s of science and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University with a minor in computer science.

With a diverse background in software design, integrated circuit (IC) design, device physics and fabrication, Gil Winograd brings a wealth of experience to Novelics, where he serves as chief operating officer, responsible for software development, IP design and test engineering.

Prior to co-founding Novelics, Dr. Winograd was a principal scientist at Broadcom Corporation, where he was responsible for the design of leading-edge memories, high-speed full-custom circuits, and compiler and software automation processes for custom circuits. Dr. Winograd has previous experience in software engineering for various embedded engineering applications and developing test computers for data acquisition.

Dr. Winograd received his bachelor’s of science in electrical engineering and his master’s of science in computer engineering from the University of Illinois. He obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University, specializing in lithography. He has published six technical papers and has more than 30 patents issued or pending.

Farzad Zarrinfar brings more than 25 years of industry experience in global semiconductor and intellectual property (IP) companies to Novelics. He has established channel and strategic relationships with some of the world’s leading semiconductor companies in the wired and wireless communication, storage and consumer markets.

Before joining Novelics in 2006, Mr. Zarrinfar was vice president of worldwide sales for strategic accounts at ARC International, where he secured strategic relationships with some of the largest fabless, integrated device manufacturers, and system companies on a global basis.

Previous positions include vice president of strategic marketing in America for SONY Semiconductor, as well as director of ASIC sales and marketing at Samsung Semiconductor, a marketing management position at LSI Logic, and engineering positions at Lockheed Martin and Texas Instruments.

Mr. Zarrinfar holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from San Diego State University, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University and a master’s in business administration, marketing from the University of Phoenix. Zarrinfar is a board member for GSPX, a world-leading digital signal processing (DSP) conference.farzad.zarrinfar@novelics.com.

Eric Collins joined Novelics as vice president of business development in 2006, where he is responsible for strategic business partnerships and marketing. Mr. Collins brings more than 25 years of experience in entrepreneurial executive management and engineering leadership roles to Novelics. Mr. Collins also serves as the CEO of Montage Technology Group, a firm that focuses on the commercialization of emerging technologies.

Prior to Novelics, Mr. Collins was the founder and chief technology officer (CTO) of MediaWorks Integrated Systems, a media processor system on chip (SoC) company, where he led the development of configurable media processor ICs and systems.

Other notable positions include director of the DigitalDNA Systems Architecture Laboratory at Motorola Labs, where Mr. Collins spearheaded the creation of Motorola’s first camera cell phone; systems architect at Graphics Communications America (later acquired by Hitachi), where Mr. Collins led the development of one of the world’s first MP3 audio player chips; and developer of mainframe processor products at Unisys Corporation.

Mr. Collins holds more than 10 U.S. patents issued and pending on electronic systems and computer architecture. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University.