Chip Startup Making Push in Home Entertainment

Irvine chip startup Quartics Inc. wants to make a big push into consumers’ living rooms-via the family computer. Quartics is the brainchild of computer industry veteran Safi Qureshey. The companny makes chips that wirelessly link computers and cell phones to digital televisions.

"The PC and the Internet is filling a very important role within the home-entertainment," said Chief Executive Qureshey, who started the company in 2003.

Qureshey’s vision is that consumers soon will look to the Internet as "a huge TiVo," the digital video recording device that allows TV watchers to record programs and watch them whenever they want.

"Anything that has been broadcast by most of the leading channels can be found online," he said. "If I miss a program, I can find it on the Internet. Today, I get to watch it on my 15-inch laptop. But what if I want to see it on my 50-inch plasma (TV)?"

The company’s gotten a boost as the market for flat-panel digital TVs has taken off, Qureshey said.

"We find ourselves in a very exciting market that’s driven by some major trends in the industry," he said. "High-definition television is all the rage."

Quartics is aiming to sell its chips to companies that make PCs, digital TVs, set-top boxes and graphics cards-processors that help video and other graphics download faster.

The company has struck deals with a handful of businesses and started rolling out products in late 2006.

Customers include PC maker Acer Inc., ‘ which bought Irvine- based Gateway Inc. last year, D-Link Systems Inc., NEC Corp., InFocus Corp. and ViewSonic Corp.

D-Link, a Taiwanese company that has its U.S. headquarters in Fountain Valley, is unveiling its latest device with a Quartics chip at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Quartics’ chips power a set-top box made by D-Link that allows users to stream Webbased video from a PC to a TV, projector or other display through cables or wirelessly.

The device looks like a small box that attaches to a TV set. It uses wireless networking to link to a PC that’s nearby. The device, known as "PC-on-TV," lets users view videos on their TVs without a separate media player, such as Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Player.

Quartics has some competition with big name players pushing to get Internet-linked TVs into the hands of early adopters.

Last year Apple Inc. debuted its Apple TV, while Sony Corp. came out with its Bravia TV. Hewlett-Packard Co. started selling the high- definition MediaSmart TV.

Qureshey is looking to have Quartics’ chips improve such products.

"The key thing is that these (products) have significant limitations," he said.

Some of the Internet-linked TVs are confined to wires, while others are tied to specific software and file formats, he said.

"These limitations are allowing Quartics to come up with technologies that tie the three screens (cell phones, PCs and TVs) together," Qureshey said.

Quartics, which counts 60 workers in Irvine, has its chips made in Taiwan. It also has about 20 workers at sites in India and Taiwan.

The company is funded by a combination of seed money from its cofounders and two venture rounds.

Investors include Enterprise Partners in La Jolla and Foundation Capital in Menlo Park.

Quartics’ most recent funding was $7.5 million in August from Palo Alto-based Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc.

The company declined to say how much it has raised to date.

Qureshey hinted that another round could be in the works.

"To build a chip company you have to raise a lot of capital," he said. "We have been fortunate that (there is) interest in this type of company."

Qureshey declined to disclose the company’s revenue. He did say Quartics isn’t profitable yet.

Qureshey came out of retirement to start Quartics with Sherjil Ahmed.

Qureshey’s best known as the founder of computer maker AST Research Inc., the defunct Irvine company that once ranked among the top computer makers before crashing hard in the mid-1990s.

Qureshey helped grow the company from a garage outfit in 1980 to a Fortune 500 company.

Samsung Electronics Co. bought AST in 1997 and later dissolved the business.

Qureshey, a native of Pakistan, has had his hand in a number of tech ventures.

"Orange County has been great for me as an entrepreneur," he said. "When a new market is emerging right in front of your eyes, it gives the chance to build a new company. That’s exciting to someone like me and makes me want to roll up my sleeves."

D-Link "PC-on-TV" device: Quartics chips powering it