Gennum Corp., a Burlington, Ont.-based semiconductor manufacturer, has agreed to sell its image processing business to Sigma Designs Inc. of Milpitas, Calif. for US$18 million.
With the sale of its VXP product line to Sigma Designs, Gennum plans to focus on “high-growth markets,” in optical, analogue and mixed signal. Gennum’s products include video timing and transport, integrated circuits for optical transceivers and blackplane interconnects. Gennum’s components are included in displays, projectors, routers, switches and optical transport equipment.
About 46 Gennum employees will join Sigma Designs, which develops system-on-a-chip semiconductors for ultra wideband connectivity products, video over IP set top boxes, DVD players and recorders, digital media adapters and high definition television.
Under the acquisition agreement with Gennum, Sigma will get all products and intellectual property of the VXP group, which includes the GF9450 digital image processor, which has two channels of adaptive de-interlacing and 3D noise reduction.