Wei Yen

Wei Yen
Occupation Software developer and entrepreneur

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 from 1988 to 1995, where he led development on OpenGL and also served as President of subsidiary MIPS Technologies. In 1995, Dr. Yen left SGI and founded TVsoft, a maker of interactive software for television setup devices. The company was renamed Navio, a company that merged with Oracle's Network Computer (NCI). It became Liberate Technologies and then went public in July 1999. Its public offering reached a $12 billion valuation in early 2000 with a revenue run rate of $25 million.[1][2]

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. The company was acquired by ATI in February 2000 for $400 million. This led to ATi's greatly improved R300 graphics chip family. Yen later joined ATI's board of directors.[1]

Yen was appointed to the board of directors at MoSys in 2000.[2]

With Nintendo, he cofounded iQue, the manufacturing and distributing arm of Nintendo for mainland China.[3]

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]

Yen is the founder of iGware, a company that offers cloud computing services to its customers. Its most important customer is Nintendo. iGware's cloud services power the online services of the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Wii, and 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, and thus iGware becomes a part of Acer's company structure in providing cloud services. In this context, iGware's US-team collaborates with new teams in Taiwan and China. Furthermore, iGware changed its name to Acer Cloud Technology Co. and will continue to be headed by Wei Yen.[4] Yen is the second largest shareholder of Acer after founder Stan Shih.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Brandon Sheffield (November 20, 2006). "Learning New Moves: AiLive's Wei Yen Teaches Wii New Tricks". Gamasutra.com. Retrieved July 30, 2008.
  2. 1 2 "Dr. Wei Yen to Join MoSys Board of Directors. - Free Online Library". September 4, 2000. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Nintendo to Enter China's Video-Game Market With a New Console". September 25, 2003. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  4. ↑ CNA and Staff Reporter (July 22, 2011). "Acer buys US iGware cloud computing firm". wantchinatimes.com. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Acer Incorporated 2012 Annual Report" (PDF). May 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
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