NETANYA, Israel — Motorola's venture arm has made an equity investment in DesignArt Networks (Raanana, Israel), a supplier of silicon system-on-chip (SoC) designs for WiMAX radio access network infrastructure.

Motorola Ventures led this second round for DesignArt Networks, joined by existing investors, Carmel Ventures and Magma Venture Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The announcement was made in the Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona, Spain.

Globally, mobile operators are recognizing the need for increased cell density to provide wireless broadband and multimedia services and meet performance needs. But, according to the companies, in most cases deployment and operational costs are staggering.

DesignArt Networks has developed an SoC platform for the WiMAX infrastructure that is claimed to lower deployment and operational costs of WiMAX networks.

DesignArt's single-chip SoC platform, which is used to build base station and relay products, is suitable for both in- and outdoor deployments, alongside micro, pico and femto cell applications.