US chip design firm sets up centre in B'lore

PMC-Sierra, a US-based fabless semiconductor company, has set up a development centre with an investment of $7 million and will eventually be looking for opportunities to make equity investments in Indian chip design companies.

A fabless firm designs, develops and supports semiconductor products without actually fabricating them.

The company, which specialises in the telecommunication vertical, seeks to tap the boom in the field in India.

"PMC-Sierra is expecting large growth in the market. Inorganic growth is also an option but nothing as of now," says Bob Bailey, chairman and CEO, PMC-Sierra.

The company has global customers like Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel Networks, Alcatel, Fujitsu, and Ericsson which are all expanding their presence in India.

The new facility in Bangalore can accommodate 300 engineers and will, this year, hire 50 to work on technologies like WiMAX and storage. "We are currently working on VoIP with HCL Technologies and on SoC with Wipro," said Bailey. The company is also looking out for tie ups with academic institutions like IITs and IISc for R&D as well as recruitment.

The company already has dedicated offshore development centres at Wipro and HCL where about 75 people are working. "These efforts will continue and expand to about 250 people by next year," said Arun Bellary, vice-president, India operations.

The company will also have dedicated sales and support teams for its corporate customers like Tejas Networks and Reliance.

The consumption of electronic hardware is expected to exceed $40 billion by 2010. This will entail a demand for $10 billion worth of chips and "we plan to have at least an addressable market of $1 billion," Bellary added.

The company had a topline of $297 million and 55 per cent of its revenues come from Asia (includes Japan). It has a development centre in Shanghai, China.