Surya to steer Infineon's software group
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Tuesday, 09 November 2004, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Infineon, the No.5 semiconductor company in the world, is betting on the need for software to power the booming market for semiconductor applications. The company today announced the setting up of the Corporate Software (CS) Group. The Corporate Software Group will play a critical role in positioning Infineon as a supplier of high quality and reliable software solutions for semiconductors. The company has appointed Surya Santhanagopalan as Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Software (CS) of Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany and Managing Director of Infineon Technologies India Private Limited. Surya will be based in Bangalore, India. “Infineon is a strong semiconductor products company. We are now transforming into a semiconductor solutions provider, which would mean that the software component that drives the chipsets is going to increase dramatically. My mission is to make build world-class software division to enable Infineon to become semiconductor solutions provider,” says Surya. Surya would be reporting directly to Infineon’s board at its headquarters in Munich, Germany. Though he would be based in Bangalore, Surya will be overseeing and driving the company’s software strategy across the software teams in New York, Asia (China, India, Singapore), and Europe (Germany, Denmark, Sweden). Surya would concurrently manage Infineon’s India facility too. India function is a sub set of Surya’s worldwide responsibility. “Software is a big piece for us and India is critical for all the software that goes into the chips. Hence, India center is where all the action is at present,” he says. Infineon India plays a vital role in providing leading edge software competency in the domains of Wireless Communications (handset and infrastructure), Wireline Communications and Automotive Industry and is currently engaged in developing low level drivers, building of protocols, applications and integration of these with hardware, firmware and device drivers to enable the company to deliver complete reference designs. Surya acknowledges the abundant talent available in India and notes, “The entire design team here (in Bangalore) is working on state-of-the-art technologies. The Indian semiconductor industry in general is witnessing a critical mass come into force.” The Bangalore center today houses approximately 300 engineers. The company plans to ramp up to 800 within next couple of years. Prior to joining Infineon Technologies, Surya was in Malaysia, as Managing Director, Motorola Malaysia. His primary responsibility was setting up of a software division for Motorola in Malaysia. In addition, Surya was responsible for Motorola’s software operations in ten countries spanning four continents. Under his stewardship, Motorola Malaysia was one of the best performing units and earned the distinction of being assessed the CMMI Level 5 and CMM Level 5 qualifications in world record time. In fact, siliconindia had featured Surya on the cover in April 2004, while he was heading Motorola in Malaysia. https://www.siliconindia.com/magazine/fullstory.asp?aid=AYS189507890 Surya comes to Infineon with significant years of experience and many successes in the computer, telecommunications and semiconductor industries, having served in positions of increasing responsibility. He started his professional career in 1988 as a Member of the Technical Staff at Hewlett Packard in California. Subsequently, Surya joined IBM where he led and contributed to the architectural design of a new family of PC microprocessors. His next assignment was at Texas Instruments, Dallas as leader of Custom Integrated Circuit Chips. Surya earned an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S an M.S. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University, USA and a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.

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