Bay Microsystems

Bay Microsystems, established in 2000, specialized in the development and marketing of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and intellectual property for high-performance networking and data communications. The company was founded by a team that included Leonid ("Lenny") Lertsman and Michael "Micky" Holender. Headquartered in San Jose, California, Bay Microsystems focused on creating semiconductor solutions designed to manage and accelerate data flow in demanding environments such as data centers, cloud computing, and high-performance computing (HPC).

The company's core technology centered on deep packet inspection, traffic management, and network processing. Its product portfolio included network processors and search-and-lookup engines that enabled original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to build systems with advanced data handling capabilities. These products were aimed at clients in the enterprise, service provider, and government sectors, including the defense and intelligence communities. The business model revolved around the sale of these specialized semiconductor chips and licensing its intellectual property to other technology companies.

In a significant development, Vcinity, a provider of on-demand data access solutions, acquired Bay Microsystems and its technology. This acquisition integrated Bay's 18 years of experience and specialized technology into Vcinity's offerings, enhancing their ability to provide unbounded data access for real-time applications, effectively allowing data to be treated as local regardless of its physical location. Prior to its acquisition, Bay Microsystems had raised significant venture capital funding, with notable investors including Intel Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Walden International.

Keywords: network processors, semiconductors, data flow acceleration, deep packet inspection, ASIC, high-performance computing, data centers, intellectual property, traffic management, Vcinity