MathStar, the high performance programmable logic start-up, has added an application in 3D computer tomographic scanning to its business in MPEG2 HDTV applications.

MathStar, which has a 1GHz programmable logic device that it calls an FPOA (Field Programmable Object Arrays), has been shipping for revenue since February 2007 and now has a quarterly run-rate of around $500,000.

Its first major design win was from LG Electronics for use in a system distributing HDTV to hotel rooms.

"We got our initial traction in professional video because of the exploding standards and customers needing flexibility as well as high performance," Tom Diamond, director of marketing at MathStar, told Electronics Weekly.

That was with a 0.13 micron chip. Migrating it to 90nm gave MathStar the opportunity to address the medical imaging market.

However the MathStar plan is to expand into new applications, and its new collaboration with VisionGate which works in 3D diagnostic cellular imaging, takes MathsStar into a new market area.

"MathStar's FPOA architecture provides the performance and flexibility to implement the computationally demanding filtering and backprojection algorithms we employ in our 3D imaging technology", said Visiongate CEO Alan Nelson.

MathStar's investment in the medical-imaging market includes a portfolio of digital signal processing (DSP) libraries, FPOA development software, and an FPOA evaluation system for application development.

The next area MathStar is keen to get into is wireless base-stations. Asked whether MathStar would be producing higher performance parts for this, Diamond replied: "In principle we can take it to multiple GHz." Asked if they would be taking it to multiple GHz, Diamond declined to comment.