Peter Clarke   
LONDON - Israeli startup Siano Mobile Silicon Ltd. has licensed a configurable ARC 610D processor core with DSP extensions from ARC International plc (Elstree, England). The company would use its license to develop its SMS1000 mobile digital TV receiver chip, which is scheduled for introduction later this year, ARC said.

Siano (Netanya, Israel) is developing a CMOS, multi-standard, multi-band integrated television receiver, targeted for mobile phones, PDAs, portable multi-media and DVD players, laptops, in-car TVs, portable game consoles and digital still and video cameras and similar portable consumer devices (see Apr. 4 story).

The company was founded by executives from DSP Group, Emblaze Semiconductor, Infineon, Metalink, Motorola, Savan Communications, STMicroelectronics and Zoran Corp, and includes Ulrich Schumacher, former chief executive officer of Infineon Technologies AG on its board of directors.

"ARC presented the best fit for our needs in terms of power consumption and firmware flexibility," said Guy Shochet, Siano's chief technology officer, in a statement issued by ARC. "While our solution is mostly a hardware machine, we needed a flexible programmable engine to accommodate the expected evolution of standards, while consuming less power and less silicon area."