BATM Advanced Communications Limited (LON:BVC) has entered into a joint development agreement (JDA) with a leading multinational semiconductor and software design company.
The JDA is to develop and market infrastructure solutions for network function virtualisation (NFV), with BATM’s partner investing US$3mln-US$3.5mln into the project, which is planned to be delivered in phases over the next 18 months.
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Dr Zvi Marom, the chief executive officer of BATM, said the solution the joint-venture partners are developing will “present a real challenge to the incumbent offerings”.
The two parties will jointly develop universal customer premises equipment networking devices that will use BATM's NFVTime plug-and-play software solution that enables NFV.
The joint solution will be optimised for several new system-on-a-chip (SoC) platforms and will run a suite of virtual network functions, including vRouter, vFirewall, and SD-WAN.
BATM said this solution will be the only NFV operating system able to operate on both Intel (x86) and Arm architectures. The parties will also conduct joint business development and marketing of the new solution, and agree on a royalty arrangement that will be implemented when sales commence.
“This partnership reflects our shared belief in the opportunities presented by the expanding NFV market, especially given its relevance with the oncoming of 5G, and it is the foundation for what we expect to be a long and fruitful cooperation between the parties,” Dr Marom said.
As a result of this partnership, BATM will be able to extend and enhance its NFV offering to provide a more wide-ranging and competitive solution, as well as seek to leverage the market presence of its joint venture partner and its sales and marketing resources.
"The agreement is built not only on the unique and innovative nature of our NFVTime but also on previous successful trials of our software on the partner's architecture with SoC (system-on-a-chip) vendors. This JDA expands on that solution and we believe that it will be adopted by more SoC vendors using that same architecture,” Dr Marom stated.
“The fact that a world-leading semiconductor company has chosen to partner with BATM, including a financial commitment, validates the strength of our offering and together we will leverage their market position to target the many potential verticals for networking and edge computing solutions," he added.
Shore Capital, BATM’s nominated advisor, said it viewed this deal as further evidence of BATM’s ability to leverage its strong Intellectual property portfolio.
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