Wei Yen

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Dr. Wei Yen is a software developer and entrepreneur. He has been involved with several companies, including most recently as chairman and founder of AiLive. Dr. Yen and his brother David Yen published the paper "Data Coherence Problem in a Multicache System" along with King-sun Fu which describes a practical cache coherence protocol.

Career

Wei Yen served as the Director of Software Engineering for Cydrome Inc, where he worked with his brother David, who served as the Director of Hardware Engineering. They were the major contributors to the Cydra-5 mini-supercomputer. The system was a combination of a VLIW ECL-based processor used for scientific applications and a multi-processor system designed for a bus architecture based on their Cache Coherence protocol.

Wei served as Senior Vice President of SGI. In 1996, Dr. Yen left SGI and founded TVsoft, a maker of interactive software for television setup devices. It was renamed Navio, a company that merged with Oracle's Network Computer (NCI). It became liberate and then went public in July, 1999. It went up at a $12 Billion valuation in early 2000 with a revenue run rate of $25 Million.[1]

In parallel, Wei Yen founded a company called ArtX, employed with former SGI graphics engineers. ArtX received the contract to deliver the Nintendo Gamecube's Flipper graphics chip. It was acquired in February 2000 for $400 Million by ATI. It led to the greatly improved R300 graphics chip family. Wei later joined ATI's board of directors.[1]

Wei Yen is the chairman and founder of AiLive, the company partnered with Nintendo in developing software tools for programmers working with the Wii Remote controller and Wii MotionPlus attachment.[1]

He is also the founder of iGware, a company that offers cloud computer services to its customers. Its most important customer is Nintendo - almost all of the companies founded by Wei Yen seem to share Nintendo as their main customer. iGware's cloud services power the online services of the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Wii and soon the Nintendo Wii U. However, in July 2011, Acer, of which Wei Yen is a former board member, acquired the US-based iGware for 320 million US-$ and therefore, iGware will become a part of Acer's company structure and will continue to provide cloud services. In this context, iGware's US-team will collaborate with new teams in Taiwan and China. Furthermore, iGware will change its name to Acer Cloud Technology Co and will continue to be headed by Wei Yen.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Brandon Sheffield (2006-11-20). "Learning New Moves: AiLive's Wei Yen Teaches Wii New Tricks". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
  2. ↑ CNA and Staff Reporter (2011-07-22). "Acer buys US iGware cloud computing firm". wantchinatimes.com. Retrieved 2011-07-23. 


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