A JVC spokesman said that the company is evaluating the Tensilica approach. "We are looking at the flexibility of the Tensilica technology. If our evaluation shows that the performance claims prove out, then we will adopt it for our products, possibly for next-generation digital video cameras in order to reduce the weight and power consumption."

Bernie Rosenthal, vice president of marketing and business development at Tensilica (Santa Clara, Calif.), said Tensilica is working with customers on about 75 new designs, and about one-fourth of them are based in Japan. Rosenthal said most of Tensilica's design wins to date have been in the communications sector, and claimed that the license to JVC shows "the appropriateness of this technology for multimedia applications."