Freescale to set up research facility

Freescale Semiconductor is expanding its India operations by setting up a 1 lakh-square-foot facility in Bangalore to support Freescale's research and development in software for wireless technologies. This follows the company's recent acquisition of a 3 lakh-square-foot campus in Noida.

This $5.8 billion firm designs and manufactures embedded semiconductors for automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets.

The company employs about 700 engineers and recently announced plans to hire 1,500 engineers over four years. The India Design Centre has filed over 30 patents over the last two years. The Bangalore centre employs close to 250 engineers.

"Investment in this facility strengthens Freescale's software platform solutions for mobile and consumer devices," said Sandeep Chennakeshu, senior vice-president and general manager of Freescale's wireless and mobile systems group.

"The new centre will develop software for wireless technology and house a laboratory for software validation," he added.

The Bangalore centre develops embedded platform software solutions for cellular protocols, multimedia, security and connectivity These platform solutions have support for multiple operating systems like Symbian, Linux and WinCE.

"Our Bangalore centre is an integral part of Freescale's global design innovation for advanced wireless technologies," said Ganesh Guruswamy, country manager and director, Freescale Semiconductor India.

"We will continue to focus our investment in India to generate value for our customers and maintain our technology leadership."