For chip maker, ‘crowdfunding’ computes

(THE BOSTON GLOBE): The conventional approach in the computer business is to make the machines first, then sell them. But a Lexington start-up, Adapteva , has rung up nearly $900,000 in sales of a computer it hasn’t yet made. “We have a market. We have a customer base and everything else,” said founder and chief executive Andreas Olofsson. “The stressful part is we’ve already taken their money and now we have to go build them.” To raise the money for his company’s new computer, called Parallella, Olofsson turned to Kickstarter, the online “crowdfunding” service that lets ordinary people invest money like venture capitalists. FULL ARTICLE