Philips gung ho on chip designing unit

By agencies   |   Thursday, 30 June 2005, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: The semiconductor research team of the consumer electronics giant Philips will play a dominant role in the design of the next generation high definition consumer chip, to be the biggest ever to be designed by the company. Philips Semiconductors Chief Technology Officer, Rene Penning de Vries said here that the design center was now fully staffed and equipped to embark on designs in latest technologies based on 65 and 90 nanometres. He said, "The next generation consumer platform chip will enable new applications such as high definition motion based enhancement and three dimension television. It will be the biggest chip we have ever designed in this company and will consist of multiple Mips and Trimedia processors and various application specific IP blocks." He said the Indian team would be integrating the whole chip with designs coming from multiple research sites in Europe and the U.S. The Semiconductor research team in Bangalore has over 500 people and it would grow significantly, he added. He also announced a new initiative, which would allow the design center to focus on reusable IPs. "Reuse of IP is essential as chip complexities are increasing at tremendous rate." The Bangalore team would be responsible for a large part of the reuse portfolio. "Our existing competencies in the reuse IP portfolio include connectivity blocks, wired and wireless, intra and Intel chips, peripherals and drivers," he said. Philips began its semiconductor activities in Bangalore in August 1996 and was working on latest embedded software domains. Without giving any specific number, he said the Bangalore center was expected to hire at the same pace as now over the next three years. Technologists at the Bangalore innovative center of Philips had been rowing at the rate of 15 per cent during the last few years

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