The Hindu Business Line : Philips Semiconductors plans to add hardware development group

PHILIPS Semiconductors, the 5-billion euro division of Royal Philips Electronics, plans to add a hardware development group to its software capabilities in India.

"We are planning to set up a hardware development group in India and focus on creation of intellectual property here," said Mr Rene Penning de Vries, Chief Technology Officer of Philips Semiconductors.

The competency centre of Philips Semiconductors in India currently has some 400 people.

"We plan to double our headcount over the next two to three years," he said.

The centre is focussing on building competencies in the core areas of system on chip design, embedded software development, reusable hardware and software and design technology.

Philips, which has identified India as a strategic centre for development of its next generation 65 nanometre chips, is changing the focus of operations here from software programming to designing of chips.

The Bangalore centre will collaborate with other facilities across the globe to develop a prototype of a 65-nanometre chip that is expected to be rolled out in a year. 65 nanometres is roughly a thousandth of the width of a single human hair.

The fastest chips today are made on the 90-nanometre manufacturing process, Mr de Vries said adding that high-end digital consumer electronics were pushing semiconductor makers to develop smaller chips that are faster and use less power efficiently.