India is important to electronic design automation (EDA) software and tools maker Synopsys in many ways. Apart from having a strong pool of R&D engineers in India, most of the global silicon design and device manufacturing companies who use the Nasdaq-listed company's software and tools have strong presence in the country. Chi-Foon Chan, President and co-CEO of the Nasdaq-listed company tells Bibhu Ranjan Mishra about the growing semiconductor ecosystem in India and importance of being in India. Excerpts from an interview:
You have your second largest R&D base in India? What is your opinion about Indian design capability?
Indians have strong design capabilities. The design talent here is driven by multinational companies who have got extremely competent teams here. All leading companies like Texas Instruments, ST Micro and Broadcom have leading edge designers.
Last year, you acquired Magma Design Automation; what is the rationale behind this?
We acquired Magma for several reasons. They had some of the great technologies and engineers with expertise in working inn tools for 20 and 40 nanometers chips. They had done lot of innovations in the analog and mixed signal custom design segments. But since they were a small company, it was difficult for them to take those technologies into fruition.
I think this is the second company you are buying who has strong presence in India?
Magma had close to 700 people globally out of which about 200 were in India. Earlier, we had acquired nSys Designs System, an Indian company. But most of the companies that we are buying have large Indian footprint from engineering point of view. We have close to 1200 people in India today.
Is there a consolidation happening in EDA industry?
EDA Industry is definitely consolidating. During the last 22 years of our existence, we have acquired 60 companies and those 60 companies might have acquired some 60 different companies. The consolidation is happening because the customers always want to go to a vendor who offers more solutions.
As a part of its draft national policy on electronics, India is encouraging establishments of semiconductor fabrication units (fabs) in the country. What kind of role you would like to play here?
Well, we are very much in the design side. If India wants to build fabs, we can be an enabling partner. We also have a lot of tools for designing the manufacturing process. If you are building a foundry and going to develop process, you need to have tools to develop those processes. We are at the base of the whole ecosystem.
Does it make enough sense to have fabs in India?
In 2007, it was a little premature because it was being predicated based on business needs. Even today also some people may argue that the business needs don’t exist that much. Because, if you really look around the world, there are only one or two fabs who actually make money. But there are various strategic reasons why India should have local manufacturing of semiconductors.
You have tie-ups with many Indian universities. How does that help?
We fundamentally believe that university is the life blood of high technology. All of us came out of universities. Even though we have a very capable and competent workforce, a major component of new ideas comes from the universities. India has a well-established university system which offers rigorous training.
How is the current phase of economic slowdown affecting the EDA industry?
If you are in a business, you are going to be affected by the global economy. It is just a cycle. In our industry, the manufacturing sites are different from the design sites, and the end consumers are different. So, we are trying to be more careful; we are spending a lot of time watching our customers and where the industry is moving.
