BURY ST. EDMUNDS, England -- System Technology Networking and Communication Enterprises Ltd. (STNC), a young company based here that licenses software to Psion plc and Geoworks Inc., has raised about $1.6 million from U.K. venture capital firm 3i to fund future expansion.

STNC said it will use the money to write a compact Java interpreter for mobile devices such as Web-enabled mobile phones and personal digital assistants. The company will also develop a software product for mobile phones that use the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) digital cellular standard.

"Java is very attractive for this type of device, but the Java environment and its interpreter end up being too big--typically 4 Mbytes of ROM and 4 to 8 Mbytes of RAM," said Ran Mokady, founder and managing director of STNC. Mokady aims to get the mini-Java interpreter into less than 1 Mbyte.

The GSM product will be an integrated protocol stack combining e-mail, Internet Protocol and the GSM communications protocol also in less than 1 Mbyte. Mokady said both products will be completed within 12 months. But to achieve that goal, he needs 3i's backing to double his staff from its present head count of 12.

Founded in 1993, STNC is setting itself up to supply established names in portable software and to compete with othe rs, such as Spyglass, by writing highly compact Internet and communications software.

The young company already has three products that help mobile devices to access the Internet: an Internet protocol stack, e-mail libraries and World Wide Web libraries. The technology is licensed to British palmtop computer-maker Psion, PC maker Brother, and Geoworks, whose software is used in the Nokia 9000 mobile phone and personal organizer.

In the case of Psion, STNC used the World Wide Web libraries to create a browser.

"For Brother, we wrote the complete browser for the Geobook, a notebook computer being sold for $600. Other companies prefer to use the libraries so that they can create a consistent user interface."

The reason these companies come to STNC is, "we do it better. We have our browser in 200 kbytes," Mokady said. "Netscape's occupies 18 Mbytes. It would take a lot of effort by other companies to catch up."

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