AUSTIN, Tex.--Are design engineers and other decision makers in the electronics industry watching more television? Perhaps, if semiconductor advertising is any gauge of leisure habits. Motorola Inc. today joined rival Texas Instruments Inc. in targeting semiconductor customers with advertising on cable TV.

Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector here launched a national TV advertising campaign to promote its DigitalDNA technology brand to chip customers. The new TV campaign expands on ads running in financial newspapers since June and places Motorola chip commercials on cable TV's CNBC, The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, and CNN Headline News. The commercials start running today.

The move follows the start of a $20 million multi-media ad campaign at TI, which is doubling its advertising spending to reach semiconductor customers--engineers and managers at equipment manufactuers--to sell more digital signal processing (DSP) solutions. TI's campaign splashes DSP related commercials on targeted cable TV programs, Internet sites, and in non-trade publications.

Unlike TI's ad program, however, Motorola is calling its DigitalDNA commercials a technology "branding" campaign. The series uses the slogan "the Heart of Smart" and emphasizes Motorola's embedded technology as the core of automotive, networking, wireless communications, and entertainment products.

Motorola said its first TV ad features a 10-year-old boy who astounds his teacher and classmates when he exhibits a food-fetching robot dog as his science project. Instead of denying that he received help on the project, he proudly exclaims that he formed a strategic alliance with Motorola and used DigitalDNA technology.

"The market for smart embedded technology is expanding rapidly as consumers demand products that are simple, intuitive and easy to use," said Karen Hanley, director of global brand marketing at Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector in Austin. Motorola did not disclose the amount it is planning to spend on cable TV commercials, which are scheduled to run through Nov. 18. --J. Robert Lineback