Philips Incubator comes to India

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 10 January 2007, 18:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
The already teeming Indian semiconductor space saw a new entrant Tuesday when Philips Technology Incubator's business venture Silicon Hive opened its India center in Bangalore. The group also announced a partnership with a local embedded software startup, AllGo Embedded Systems. Ramanathan Sethuraman, director of Bangalore operations of Silicon Hive while speaking at the 20th International VLSI design conference in Bangalore stated that the new center is looking for new systems and applications software partnerships in India for its HiveFlex product line. The product line includes semiconductor intellectual property in imaging, communications, and video signal processing. "We have a French partner, DxO Technologies, in the imaging sector, but we are aggressively looking for worldwide partners in communications and media processing," said Sethuraman. He also announced the partnership with AllGo--started by three ex-Motorola engineers two years back--for jointly developing a video signal processing demonstration system. As per the arrangement, SiliconHive will provide hardware components AllGo will supply embedded software. AllGo CEO K. Srinivasan further stated that the two partners also plan to develop "fully programmable" video systems. The company is presently showcasing its own intellectual property in embedded networking at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The embedded software enables users to share digital music across a range of personal gadgets like iPods, car decks, mobile phones, and home music systems. Philips Incubating Tech Four-year-old Silicon Hive is one of the six businesses currently incubating in the Philips Technology Incubator. Royal Philips Electronics, which owns the incubator, fully funds all its ventures until they are spun out as separate entities. Polymer Vision, focusing on products for the roll-able display market became the first company to graduate out of the incubator last Wednesday1. Technology Capital has invested $27.3 million in the independent company, and Eindhoven, Netherlands-based Philips has retained a 20 percent stake in the new company. Silicon Hive too is expected to spin off as an independent company in the very near future, but could also function as a product division. "At a certain stage, businesses in the Incubator are either spun up to a Philips product division or are spun out to form separate independent companies," said Silicon Hive CEO Atul N. Sinha.