Motorola-backed startup DesignArt Networks announced its first product, the DAN2400, combining mobile WiMAX and backhaul support in a system-on-chip package.

The chip could be used for outdoor base stations or indoor femtocells and picocells, CTO Assaf Touboul said.  Such tight integration usually means less flexibility for customers, so DesignArt compensates by adding custom versions of commercial processors, he explained.

How that customization works is DesignArt’s patent-pending secret.  In the big picture, “The uniqueness is mainly that we reduced to zero the cost of the backhaul,” Touboul said.  The product also helps increase switch capacity and decrease spectrum requirements, he said.

The DAN2400 will ship this fall but pricing was not announced.  Future versions will expand the WiMAX support and there will probably be an LTE model, he said.

“As far as I’m aware, I haven’t heard of any other company doing that,” said Monica Paolini, president of Senza Fili Consulting, who has worked for DesignArt.  “It’s a good idea.  It’s something for which there is a very strong demand,” mostly because of the looming backhaul cost for WiMAX startups, she said.

DesignArt is based in the Israeli technology hub of Ra’anana.  Investors other than Motorola are Carmel Ventures and Magma Venture Partners.