Future Technology Devices International, commonly known by its initialization, FTDI, is a Scottish privately traded semiconductor device

Semiconductor device

Semiconductor devices are electronic components that exploit the electronic properties of semiconductor materials, principally silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide, as well as organic semiconductors. Semiconductor devices have replaced thermionic devices in most applications...

 company, specializing in Universal Serial Bus

Universal Serial Bus

USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....

 (USB) technology. It develops, manufactures, and supports devices and their related software drivers for converting RS-232

RS-232

In telecommunications, RS-232 is the traditional name for a series of standards for serial binary single-ended data and control signals connecting between a DTE and a DCE . It is commonly used in computer serial ports...

 or TTL

Transistor-transistor logic

Transistor–transistor logic is a class of digital circuits built from bipolar junction transistors and resistors. It is called transistor–transistor logic because both the logic gating function and the amplifying function are performed by transistors .TTL is notable for being a widespread...

 serial transmissions

Serial communication

In telecommunication and computer science, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are sent as a whole, on a link with several parallel channels...

 to USB signals, in order to allow support for legacy devices with modern computers.

FTDI provides application-specific integrated circuit

Application-specific integrated circuit

An application-specific integrated circuit is an integrated circuit customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use. For example, a chip designed solely to run a cell phone is an ASIC...

 (ASIC) design services. They also provide consultancy services for product design, specifically in the realm of electronic devices. The company's flagship product is its FTDI Chip, an integrated circuit

Integrated circuit

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

 which is a common component on electronic devices using microcontroller

Microcontroller

A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of RAM...

s, such as the Arduino

Arduino

Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, descendant of the open-source Wiring platform, designed to make the process of using electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVR...

 physical computing

Physical computing

Physical computing, in the broadest sense, means building interactive physical systems by the use of software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world. While this definition is broad enough to encompass things such as smart automotive traffic control systems or factory automation...

 platform.

FTDI's headquarters are in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, while it also has offices in Taipei, Taiwan and Portland, Oregon. The company's manufacturing division is handled by subcontractors in the Asia Pacific region.

The company sells its products to consumers via its website, but also sells in volume to retailers.

History

FTDI was founded on March 13, 1992 by its current CEO Fred Dart. The company is an indirect descendant of Computer Design Concepts Ltd, a former semiconductor technology startup founded by Dart.

FTDI's initial products were chipsets for personal computer motherboards, the primary customer of which was IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, which used them in its AMBRA

AMBRA Computer Corporation

AMBRA Computer Corporation was a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM.In 1992 in Europe and in 1993 in the USA, it introduced a personal computer line-up targeting the home user, sold mainly through mail-order. The AMBRA had a main volume production run of just a year or so, being discontinued in 1994...

 and PS/1

IBM PS/1

The IBM PS/1 was a brand for a line of personal computers and was IBM's return to the home market in 1990, five years after the IBM PCjr. It was replaced by the IBM Aptiva in September 1994.-Position in IBM's PC brands:...

personal computers. It later expanded its product line to include interface translators such as the MM232R and the USB-COM232-PLUS1 along with other devices for converting between USB and other communication protocols.