Home-grown chip design

Several home-grown Indian start-up design companies are making a mark by evolving products for the world market. Most of them have been started by entrepreneurs with prior experience in MNCs like Texas Instruments, Intel and Freescale.

For instance, SiRF Technology, founded by two Indians in 1995 in the US, is now a system solution provider delivering turnkey reference designs and system software along with its semiconductor products. The company set up its Indian subsidiary "� SiRF Technology India "� in 2004 with the aim of starting a 'Centre of Excellence'.

"We take advantage of the IP creation potential of India and complement it with the cost arbitrage,"said SiRF Technology India managing director Ashutosh Pande.

Another firm, Cosmic Circuits, operating out of Bangalore, was started by five engineers from Texas Instruments in June 2005. "In 18 months, we have been able to get 15 customers worldwide and are licensing intellectual property (IP) in power management, data converters and complete analog front end," said its founder president and CEO Ganapathy Subramaniam.

Another start-up firm Sankalp Semiconductor, offering analog and mixed-signal design and layout services, has adopted a unique model. It plans to grow in Tier 2 cities by creating centres for customers catering to their IP confidentiality needs, according to Sankalp Semiconductors Founder Vivek Pawar.

India Semiconductor Association President Poornima Shenoy said: "The increase in software content in embedded devices (device software) has led to the augmentation of Very Large System Integration (VLSI) design in India. Along with IP development, it has enabled delivery of complete turnkey solutions to clients."