US chips design firm Sigma Designs is “considering its strategic alternatives” with the help of Deutsche Bank, usually a coded expression for putting all of part of itself up for sale. Sigma is one of those few chip firms still providing SoCs for set tops and smart TVs, but of late it has been growing in IoT devices on the back of its low power LAN class Z-Wave technology – a direct competitor to the more globally accepted ZigBee and Bluetooth technologies. Sigma said at its last results conference that it is carefully reviewing all of its product lines to determine which offer the best synergistic fit with its long-term growth plans. The much larger Marvell, went through a similar…