Texas Instruments (TI) Inc, the first multinational company to start silicon design in India in 1985, on Friday unveiled a series of extended partnerships with local companies that will strengthen its position offering real-time signal processing technologies for worldwide markets.

BANGALORE: These partnerships include four recently opened off-campus development centers, a network consisting of a thousand third party developers, and two OMAP Technology Centers. "India is emerging as a silicon design powerhouse. That is why we are confident in our decision to build R&D expertise here," said Tom Engibous, TI's chairman, CEO and president, who paid a two-day visit to Bangalore to meet with customers, technology partners and industry leaders. "Silicon design engineers here are building on the country's strength in embedded software and the combination of silicon and software makes a very potent combination that India can leverage," he added. More than 400 partner engineers are working closely with about 1,000 of TI's India-based engineers to develop complex silicon designs and embedded software products. By further extending partnerships in India, TI has helped many highly skilled Indian professionals in the US return to their homeland, helping create a "second wave" of development for India's IT industry. Currently one of TI's largest R&D sites outside of the US, TI India is developing a wide range of products, including complex system-on-a-chip silicon designs as well as high-performance analog integrated circuits. Applications include wireless, broadband, imaging and audio. The more than 200 patents from TI India is a benchmark among hi-tech companies in the country. TI India managing director Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra said, "Through our cooperation with several Indian companies in silicon design and embedded software, TI is leading the creation of a significant ecosystem of companies in India. This is an area where India is increasingly playing a key role and one that should be leveraged as a rapidly emerging opportunity for the country." Outlining the future of the electronics market, Engibous said, "Real-time signal processing is essential for the emerging world of portable and connected digital devices. The electronics marketplace will have two main growth drivers for at least the next decade: the mobile Internet, and broadband to and through the home. In both areas, I believe India will be a major global contributor for the development of silicon and embedded software that go into these types of end equipments." Recently TI announced the world's fastest fixed point DSP for emerging video and imaging applications, the DM642. The chip was designed and developed in the TI India center. TI India developed not only the silicon design, but also the complete software suite that runs on the chip, as well as many of the tools required by the development community.