US based chip manufacturer Intel has acquired Dutch-based systems-on-chip (SoC) startup Silicon Hive, in an effort to make its low-power Atom processors more appealing to device makers, especially mobile devices.
The acquisition is expected to bring better still imaging and multimedia video processor technology, compilers and software tools to its growing Atom processor portfolio.
Silicon Hive, headquartered in Dutch Eindhove, was spun out from Philips Eelctronics in 2007 and received major investment from New Venture Partners and a smaller amount from TVM Capital.
The SoC startup also received another $7m round of funding led by Intel Capital, the private equity arm of the chip giant.
New Venture Partners, lead investor in the startup, said Silicon Hive’s capabilities will aid in the delivery of Intel’s more differentiated Atom processor-based SoCs as multimedia and imaging grow in importance across the mobile smart device segments.
Earlier in February, Intel has signed a technology collaboration deal with Silicon Hive to apply the latter’s parallel processing tools to Intel’s Atom processors for the embedded systems market.
Financial terms of Intel’s acquisition of Silicon Hive were not disclosed.
