Semiconductor major Texas Instruments is looking to partner with start-ups in India to quicken chip development cycles and go to market faster in new areas such as automotive and industrial machines.

Talking to BusinessLine , Santhosh Kumar, Managing Director of Texas Instruments India, said that while the company is using its R&D facility in Bengaluru to do its technology work, it also believes that partnerships are important to be at the cutting edge of innovation. “Our strength is in analog chip design and with trends like Internet of Things (IoT) catching up, start-ups could help speed up our growth,” he added.

An analog chip is a set of small analog circuits that are designed on a single piece of semiconductor board. “We are constantly looking at ways to fasten chip development process,” said Kumar.

While the company did not specify in which areas it is looking to partners, company sources said that commodity semiconductor design work such as designing PCI-Express card slots in devices will be one of the areas that it is looking at start-ups for help. PCI-Express, USB- interfaces have become commodity areas and companies like Texas Instruments can focus on their strength areas by leveraging small vendors for such commoditised work, said Tony Thomas, founder of Logosent Semiconductors, a former TI employee.

Kumar also pointed out opportunities in India, especially with automation kicking in. “Companies in heavy industries and automotive are using a lot of sensors inside their machines, which is an opportunity for us,” he said, adding that Narendra Modi’s Digital India initiative will make companies more technology- focussed.

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