The Hindu Business Line : ‘Time for thrust on chip design, manufacture’

Bangalore, Aug 1 “India is already leading in high-level chip design. Now what we need is manufacturing,” said Prof Krishna Saraswat, Stanford University, who was in the city to receive a lifetime award by trade bodies – India Semiconductor Association and VLSI Society of India – on Tuesday.

“We missed an opportunity to enter manufacturing and now we are at the cusp of another opportunity. It is the right time to set up fabs next door to our design labs. If we build up expertise in high-level chip design in the analogue, DSP and mixed signal domains, and set up manufacturing next door, that will bring new capability and power. “There is a huge market for communication and entertainment chips. Innovation in this domain can be our advantage,” he said.

For that, he says, chips have to fall in place. Finance is a top issue. The Government is doing its bit, but more investors are needed. We currently have the lead in design experts, but need to increase the number of system design innovators – those who think on their own.

These creative chip designers need to be groomed. And this is where India’s glaring lack of faculty causes concern.

Universities need to retain their best brains as professors. Only with a good education system can we expect to grow a successful industry, he said.