What Atomic Rules LLC does

Atomic Rules LLC is a privately held, founder-led FPGA intellectual property vendor headquartered in Auburn, New Hampshire, founded in 2008 and operating at 1-10 employees. The company designs and licenses a portfolio of hardware IP cores — Arkville (PCIe DMA up to 480 Gbps), UOE and UOE6 (UDP offload engines for IPv4 and IPv6 at 10-400 GbE), TimeServo and TimeServoPTP (sub-nanosecond-resolution timing and IEEE-1588v2 PTP slaves), and ARDSoC (DPDK for ARM MPSoCs) — built on a Bluespec SystemVerilog design methodology targeting both AMD/Xilinx and Intel/Altera device families. In parallel it has introduced two turnkey solutions that abstract away the FPGA/HDL layer: RFDirect, an SD-card overlay image that turns Ethernet into an RF data plane with multi-GSPS throughput and unit-microsecond latency over UDP/IPv4, RoCEv2, VITA-49.2, and DIFI; and TK242, a lossless 2x100 GbE packet capture board with in-hardware PCAP generation exceeding 200 Gbps.

The company monetizes through three streams: one-time perpetual IP core licensing to semiconductor and equipment manufacturers, engineering services for custom FPGA and data-movement design work, and turnkey hardware sales. Distribution is direct and enterprise-only, with no visible reseller network, supported by Intel Gold Partner, Xilinx/AMD Alliance, AWS EC2 F1, BittWare, PCI-SIG, VITA, DPDK Silver member, and Linux Foundation Silver memberships. Target customers are concentrated in defense, aerospace and electronic warfare (primary), telecom and 5G infrastructure (primary), and secondarily in storage/data center acceleration, autonomous systems, scientific instrumentation, and video analytics — all use cases where deterministic latency and hardware offload outweigh the cost of integrating FPGA IP.

Operationally, Atomic Rules has remained a bootstrapped LLC with no institutional funding, no disclosed revenue, and no parent company. Its strategic posture is best characterized as a deep, standards-embedded niche specialist pursuing incremental TAM expansion through product-line extension (turnkey solutions) and channel partnerships (BittWare boards, AWS cloud FPGA) rather than through headcount or geographic scaling.

Name

Atomic Rules LLC

Legal name

Atomic Rules LLC

Website

https://atomicrules.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Atomic Rules LLC is a founder-led, Auburn, NH-based FPGA IP vendor (founded 2008, 1-10 employees) licensing Arkville PCIe DMA, UDP offload, and precision-timing cores plus RFDirect and TK242 turnkey solutions to defense, telecom, and data-center customers via direct enterprise sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

FPGA IP Cores and Networking Infrastructure

NAICS

Other Communications Equipment Manufacturing (334290)

SIC

Semiconductors & Related Devices (3674)

akta.pro primary industry

Hardware/Chip Design IP Cores (Processor, Interface, Analog, Security) (HDAHAFAF)

Keywords

• FPGA IP cores
• High-performance networking
• PCIe DMA solutions
• Precision time synchronization
• RF-over-Ethernet

Headquarters

HQ city

Auburn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. IP Core Licensing: Licensing of FPGA IP cores including Arkville, UOE, UOE6, TimeServo, TimeServoPTP, ARDSoC. Sold as RTL deliverables for integration into customer FPGA designs. Typically one-time perpetual license model for semiconductor companies and equipment manufacturers.
2. Engineering Services: Custom FPGA design and integration, high-performance data-movement architecture development, RF/DSP streaming solutions, software/Linux integration, and productization services. Flexible engagement models from short-term projects to long-term partnerships.
3. Turnkey Solutions: Complete turnkey products like RFDirect (delivered as SD-card overlay images) and TK242 packet capture boards. Customers receive fully integrated, ready-to-deploy solutions without requiring FPGA design expertise.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Atomic Rules LLC designs and licenses FPGA-based IP cores and turnkey hardware solutions for high-performance networking, data movement, and precision timing. Its portfolio includes PCIe DMA engines (Arkville), UDP offload engines for IPv4 and IPv6, IEEE-1588 PTP timing cores, DPDK-enabling ARM SoC firmware, and complete turnkey products (RFDirect for RF-over-Ethernet, TK242 for 2x100 GbE packet capture) sold to defense, aerospace, telecom, and data center equipment manufacturers.

Product overview

Atomic Rules LLC provides enterprise-grade FPGA IP components and solutions for high-performance networking, data movement, and precision timing. The portfolio comprises a unified platform of hardware IP cores (Arkville, UOE, UOE6, TimeServo/TimeServoPTP, ARDSoC) plus turnkey products (RFDirect, TK242) designed for interoperability with industry standards (DPDK, AXI, PCIe). RFDirect serves as the RF-over-Ethernet solution, TK242 provides 100 GbE packet capture, while the IP cores offer complementary functions: Arkville handles host memory DMA, UOE/UOE6 provide UDP offload, TimeServo/PTP deliver precision timing, and ARDSoC extends DPDK to ARM SoCs. Engineering services support custom integration and productization.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 60 GBytes/s (480 Gbps) bidirectional throughput with Arkville
• +3 more outcomes

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Amazon EC2 F1 Instance PartnercoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partner enabling FPGA acceleration solutions on AWS EC2 F1 instances. Positions Atomic Rules IP for cloud FPGA deployment.
• ARM Connected CommunitycoreTechnology or IntegrationConnected Community member with ARDSoC product providing DPDK solutions for ARM-based SoCs. Supports ARM A53 and A72 MPSoC platforms.
• BittWarecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSolution partner offering BittWare FPGA boards (100/200G) with Atomic Rules IP cores pre-integrated for turnkey packet capture solutions.
• BluespeccoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partner using Bluespec SystemVerilog for RTL design. Provides code correctness, portability, and reuse methodology.
• DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit)coreTechnology or IntegrationSilver member contributing to DPDK open-source project. Arkville driver included in DPDK 23.11. Core enabling technology for high-performance packet processing.
• Intel (Gold Partner)coreTechnology or IntegrationIntel Gold Partner providing FPGA solutions optimized for Intel Agilex and other Intel/PSG devices. Joint go-to-market for enterprise customers.
• PCI-SIGcoreTechnology or IntegrationPCI Special Interest Group member ensuring PCIe Gen3/4/5 compliance and interoperability for Arkville DMA solutions.
• VITAcoreTechnology or IntegrationTrade association member supporting VITA standards including VITA-49.2 (VITA-49 RF signal format). Core to RFDirect interoperability.
• Xilinx/AMD AlliancecoreTechnology or IntegrationXilinx Alliance Program member (now AMD) providing optimized IP cores for Xilinx UltraScale, UltraScale+, and Versal platforms.

Scale indicators5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Synopsys (DesignWare IP): Synopsys is the dominant EDA vendor with a broad DesignWare IP portfolio including PCIe, Ethernet, and timing IP. It competes with Atomic Rules across nearly every IP category through bundling with its EDA flow.
• Intel (Altera FPGA division): Intel's Altera FPGA group (Agilex, Stratix) is a key platform for Atomic Rules IP. Intel is simultaneously the largest go-to-market partner (Gold Partner) and a potential competitor through bundled IP and reference designs.
• Siemens EDA / Mentor Graphics (IP division): Siemens EDA licenses FPGA/ASIC IP across connectivity and verification. It is a broad EDA incumbent that competes with specialist IP houses on enterprise deals.
• AMD (Xilinx FPGA division): AMD/Xilinx is the principal FPGA silicon vendor whose device families (UltraScale, UltraScale+, Versal) Atomic Rules IP targets. It is also a competitor via first-party IP and ecosystem tools.
• Cadence (IP group, including former Evatronix): Cadence markets interface and controller IP (PCIe, USB, MIPI, Ethernet) alongside its EDA tools — a broad incumbent that competes with boutique IP houses on FPGA-targeted designs.

Direct peers

• BittWare: BittWare supplies FPGA boards (including 100/200 GbE variants) and bundles partner IP such as Atomic Rules' cores for turnkey packet capture. It is both partner and a peer in FPGA-based networking solutions.
• CAST, Inc. CAST licenses a broad catalog of FPGA/ASIC IP cores (interconnect, communications, timers). It serves the same engineering-led IP-licensing buyer and competes head-to-head on interface and timing cores.
• PLDA: PLDA designs and licenses FPGA/ASIC IP cores for PCIe, CXL, and high-speed interconnect — directly overlapping with Atomic Rules' Arkville DMA and broader interface-IP business for the same FPGA-aware buyer base.
• Napatech: Napatech builds FPGA-based SmartNIC and packet-capture appliances at 100/200 GbE. TK242 targets a closely adjacent problem — line-rate packet capture with hardware timestamping — making Napatech a direct comparable.
• Silicom: Silicom makes FPGA-accelerated SmartNICs and bypass cards for networking and security. It competes with turnkey FPGA-based data-movement solutions enabled by Atomic Rules' IP.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/atomic-rules

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Atomic Rules LLC