ESC 2009 on July 22-24 in Bangalore

MUMBAI, INDIA: ‘The Embedded Systems Conference India 2009’, a leading conference and exhibition on embedded technology will be organized from July 22-24, 2009 at NIMHANS Convention Center, Hosur road, Bangalore.

ESC India 2009 will showcase the latest suite of solutions and products from major embedded companies. Participants and visitors will get to hear from major implementers and experience live product demonstrations.

Speaking about the conference, Sajid Desai, Director, UBM India said, “ESC through its network has been in constant touch with its member both in India and internationally to address the opportunities for exponential growth of Indian embedded products and services that exists in today’s market.”

He further added: “This leading embedded technical conference offers engineers access to classes of in-depth and unbiased content that delivers real-world solutions by leading industry experts. Attendees will meet and learn from renowned experts and legends in the embedded system universe. The conference value proposition is to provide answers to the engineer’s design challenges as well as upgrading their design skills.”

For the first time, ESC will give away a survival kit to ESC engineers, which will include:
* Complimentary book on embedded systems.
* ESC Silicon Valley 2009 class notes and tutorials in digital format (only for conference attendees).
* High-end design articles published in “Embedded Systems Design” magazine in digital format.
* Complimentary 90-day access to Embedded-On-Demand. Gives you the ability to review ESC presentations, class notes, videos and white papers, 24/7.
* “Patent Fundamentals and Best Practices for Embedded Designers” –- a tutorial from Semiconductor Insights. Learn the practical realities of patents from a design perspective including what is and is not patentable and how to read a patent
*Discount coupon valid for ESC India 2010 booking. Discount applies only on All Access Pass.

ESC will also organize an exclusive CXO Panel discussion for Senior Executives and Engineers from Embedded industry on ‘Opportunities for scaling for Indian Embedded Product/Service Companies’.

The discussion will be chaired by eminent personalities such as Dr G. Venkatesh, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, Sasken Communication Technologies; Praveen Ganapathy, Director – Corporate Business Development & DSP, Texas Instruments (India); and Arvind Jayabal, Head – Mobile Devices, Wipro Technologies moderated by K. Chandrasekhar, ex-Director - Strategic Alliances & Partnerships (Asia Pacific) - NXP Semiconductors.

The overall theme for the panel discussion will be ‘Opportunities for scaling for Indian Embedded Product/Service Companies’’ and the key focus areas will include:

* Are Indian companies taking part in the growth that MNC semiconductor companies offer?
* What opportunities are there for exponential Growth for Indian embedded product/service companies exist in today's market?
* The experience so far and what is to be learnt from it?
* Where will the Indian embedded product/services companies be in 2012? - a hypothesis?

At ESC India 2009, various international and Indian speakers will take technical session. The keynote address will be given by Bruce Powel Douglass, Ph.D., Chief Evangelist for IMB Rational.

Keynote address at ESC India - 2009
· Bruce Powel Douglass, PhD, Chief Evangelist for IBM Rational
· John Boladian, Marketing Director – Windows Embedded, Microsoft

Speakers at ESC India - 2009

· Serge Plagnol; Technical Director; Southern Europe and India, GreenHills
· Niall Cooling, CEO, Feabhas Ltd.
· Robert O’Shana, Director Engineering, Freescale Semiconductors
· R.C. Cofer, Field Application Engineer, Avnet
· Ben Harding, Senior Systems Engineer, SAIC
· Ashish Mathur, Freescale Semiconductors
· Neeraj Garg, Technical Lead, Freescale Semiconductors
· Soj Thomas, Lead Architect, Robert Bosche
· Uday Wali, CEO, C-Quad
· Jagdish Bisawa, Director & CTO, Ubisys Technologies
· Venkatachalam Subramanian , Competency Group Technical Manager, Wipro Technologies
· Praveen Goyal, Engineer, Qualcomm India
· Binu Aiyappan, Wipro Technologies

Growing might of Indian embedded companies!

I am always delighted when people leave comments, especially suggesting some names or things that I may have overlooked. One such name I may have missed, especially from the line-up of the formidable embedded systems and software industry of India is Procys, a company, where, a reader has suggested that: "most of the employees of Intel or TI for that matter would have served at Procsys once at least!"

First of all, many thanks for that reminder, friend. However, please don't forget that I am merely a blogger putting down my thoughts. My list of India's top 10 embedded companies is probably not the final list! Nor am I connected with any media house to qualify as someone who's list should be considered as an authority!

I just want to remind readers that this blog is merely an honest attempt to be part of the Indian technology ecosystem. As I said, I don't represent any media house. My thoughts are personal and do not represent the industry status or opinion.

I've mentioned earlier the difficulties I've had to face, and continue to face, while blogging! Why, some people have outrightly looked down on my blogging! ;) Some others have said -- What are you writing? If it is not about IT, who will read that stuff? Don't try to do such things in India! :)

However, it pleases and humbles me to find that some readers of this blog think so! ;) All I can say is a warm thanks to all of those who care to stop by this blog!

What pleases me even more is the continuing interest in the now known might of the Indian embedded systems and software (and services) industry.

According to the ISA-IDC report of 2007 on the Indian semiconductor and design industry: the embedded software industry in India accounts for a $5.98 billion or 81 percent of the projected share of overall revenues in 2008. This has been further projected to grow to $7.29 billion or 81 percent of the projected share of overall revenues in 2009! That is quite a substantial growth!

This may be a tough year in comparison. However, have full faith in India's embedded systems and software industry. It will continue to rule for a while, am sure!

Operating systems used in embedded systems - Volume 2: Windows embedded and mobile

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Operating Systems Used in Embedded Systems - Volume 2: Windows Embedded and Mobile" report to its offering.

As part of its Embedded Software 2008 Market Intelligence Service, VDC Research Group (VDC) is pleased to release a study covering the worldwide market for the Windows family of operating systems/platforms that include CE, XPE, Point of Service, Mobile, Automotive, Server, and .NET Micro Framework used in the development of embedded/mobile devices/systems.

The report contains revenue estimates for 2007 shipments of Windows OS/platform solutions and forecasts of revenue shipments through 2010.

Market overview
The embedded market continues to grow and evolve as suppliers look to offer broader and more complete integrated solutions across the development, deployment, and management life-cycle spectrums for embedded devices/systems. This is a far different landscape from the early nineties when suppliers were compartmented and offered real-time operating systems or development tools.

Regardless of what type of system or device is being developed, software presents similar challenges; however, device software development requirements are more stringent when it comes to determinism, execution speed, footprint limitations, power management, etc.

Clearly, software has taken on greater importance in the development of devices. As a result, software concerns are increasingly managed like any other process that is part of product development including quality optimization, performance, manageability, and better efficiency.

Compounding these challenges is fast-moving silicon across a wide spectrum of processor derivatives, introducing added levels of complexity from multi-core/multi-processor architectures that have stepped up the software support from various market players and associations.

The ability to offer choice in the underlying architecture, standardization around tools, components and standards-based hardware, leveraging open source technology, and application-specific software platforms are all evolving trends that reflect a comprehensive development and life-cycle support approach.

In the end, it is no longer about a single component or components but about integrated solution stacks that address the complexity of device software development, deployment and management support. As such, the ecosystem of third-party strategic partners and their products take on greater significance as product niches are filled in within the solution and where professional services are available as a bridge to help customers achieve success.

Global market for embedded systems worth $112.5 billion in 2013

CANADA: ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS, the electronics industry market research and knowledge network, announces the availability of a new report entitled "Embedded Systems: Technologies and Markets."

According to a new market research report, Embedded Systems: Technologies and Markets available at Electronics.ca Publications, the global market for embedded systems technologies was worth $92.0 billion in 2008. This will increase to $112.5 billion in 2013, for a CAGR of 4.1 percent.

The market is broken down into segments for embedded hardware and embedded software. Embedded hardware currently has the largest share of the market, worth $89.8 billion in 2008. This should increase at a CAGR of 4.1 percent to reach $109.6 billion in 2013.

The embedded software segment has the second largest share of the market, worth $2.2 billion in 2008. This segment is expected to generate $2.9 billion in 2013, for a CAGR of 5.6 percent.

The ease of developing and marketing embedded devices is increasing with the advance of technology and communication. Embedded devices are now starting to dominate nearly every aspect of human life. Many new devices are being introduced into the global market every day with innovative end applications.

From cell phones to digital TVs to MP3 players to refrigerators to washing machines, we are constantly using embedded devices for different purposes, often unaware of the underlying technology.

Embedded hardware and software are what make these embedded devices work. The success of the embedded devices is defined by how well designed and developed the device is, and if it is using right underlying hardware that meets cost constraints.

The rise of the open source software movement on the web, coupled with low cost engineering talent available via outsourcing, will ease the design and development of embedded devices. The embedded hardware market will continue to flourish over the long term as new applications emerge.

Microcontrollers unplugged! How to choose an MCU...

Last month, I'd written a post on how MCUs or microcontrollers are shaping the embedded world. Taking this discussion a little further, I got into a conversation with Upendra Patel, CTO, eInfochips, based in Ahmedabad, with the help of my good friend Princy!

MCUs shaping embedded
On being quizzed on how microcontrollers are shaping the embedded world, Patel said that devices are designed by keeping specialized application in mind and not for general purpose usage in the embedded world. As a result, embedded devices need specialized controllers/co-processors, which are designed to execute the typical functionality in real time by offloading work of main processor.

"Microcontroller fits perfectly in this role, which is self-contained and independent in execution and still supplements to the main processor for processing power. MCUs are the integral part of embedded world and depending on the application, they assume the role of a main processor or a co-processor.

Today's MCU possesses rich features like, ADCs, PWM generator, communication ports like I2C, SPI, UART, USB, CAN etc. reducing the gap between Microprocessors but still maintaining their unique identity by only focusing on controlling and not on number crunching (for which micro-processors are more suitable). The MCUs allow the designers to create head room for future expansion, as they take up some load of main processor.

Embedded devices have been penetrated in all markets where real time performance is vital. Micro-controllers have given significant contribution for this penetration. For example: communication market, surveillance market, biometric devices, micro-finance devices, medical instruments, automotive market and robotics.

Rich feature sets
Rich feature set is an imperative in the MCU market. What should one watch out for?

Even though rich feature set is imperative in MCU market, one should watch out on technical front for following features of MCU:
* Functionality coverage.
* Functionality coverage vs. Bill of Material
* Performance in terms of MIPS
* MIPS Vs. power consumption
* Simplicity in design and board layouts
* Standard compliance for low noise emission and temperature control
* robustness and consistency
* pin multiplexing of interfaces

Other non technical point to watch for is price announcements v/s feature set. The announced low price may be for least feature product and once you choose the MCU with all the features, it may be out of budget for the product

While choosing an MCU
Let us study the key factors that influence choice of MCUs today.

According to Patel, customers looks for following factors of MCUs which influence the choice of MCU.

Price: In small applications, MCU price is a main contributor of BOM and reduced price of the same reduces BOM to a large extent in mass production. For example Built-in peripherals - significantly reduce cost and space. Also, prices of IDE licenses may also affect the decision making of customer.

Performance: Cache memory or internal memory size - significantly impacts performance, similarly Memory width and speed

Availability: Availability is one of the main factor which board designers take care of because slight delay in product launch can result in significant market share erosion for customer. Also Availability in industrial and commercial temperature grades and through distribution channels.

Life span: The life span of the MCU depends on number of years a MCU manufacturer determines to continue support for it as a main stream product. More the number of years, higher the chances of selection. It also includes roadmap for future upgrades

Power consumption: This applies to battery operated devices. Lower the power consumption, longer the recharging/replacement time. There is a trade off between speed vs. power consumption

IDE support: These days products have become more sophisticated, while at the same time the life cycle has become shorter. It is very important to have a equally sophisticated IDE to speed up the development cycle and reduce time-to-market.

Technical support: History has shown that excellent products with not up to the mark technical support has never been successful. It is very essential for MCU provider to provide support at design and development stage of product development.

The other important aspect is about the track record of a semiconductor vendor in deliveries and post silicon bugs/issues reported.

Why are low-power MCUs in demand?
Now, it is time to determine the chief reasons for the demand in low-power MCUs.

According to Patel, in today's consumer market of electronics and communications, handheld devices like the mobile phones and PDAs are mostly operated with batteries. The battery life is becoming a major concern for most of the portable devices because they run several different types of applications hence a demand for low power MCUs.

Also, designs are becoming smaller, and the weight and size of power supply/batteries is impacting the MCU choice and power consumption. Another trend is toward fanless designs to reduce noise and cost, and at the same manage thermals in smaller form factors.

For example, the MSP430 from Texas Instruments is an ultra-low-power MCU, which is suitable for devices where power saving is crucial. Those MCUs which has capability to handle data with CPU intervention participate in family of low-power MCUs.

In order to support low power functionality, MCUs support several power down modes for battery consumption. For example,
* Turning off CPU leaving every thing else functional.
* Running only low frequency clock oscillator and the peripherals running on it.
* To individually and automatically turning on and off peripherals when needed thus saving power being consumed by peripheral.

Applications
MSP430 ultra-low power MCU from Texas Instruments: used in wireless, medical and low power industrial applications.
Atmel's ultra-low per MCU: used in Zigbee, security and keyless entry applications which spend significant amount of their time in sleep mode.

8- vs. 16-bit MCUs
Affordable prices are among the reasons that the Asian region is witnessing a migration to 16-bit architectures. Then, why still have 8-bit MCUs?

Patel advised that although 16 bit MCUs are available at low prices in Asian market, the primary reason for selecting 8-bit MCUs are as follows:
* Design simplicity
* Easy up-gradation to 16 or 32 bit architecture
* Cost effectiveness
* Development tools
* Easy to adopt

Finally, let us have a look at eInfochips' roadmap in the embedded domain. Patel said that eInfochips is more focused on RISC based higher end MCU based products in streaming media, industrial, avionics, security and surveillance domains.

"The primary focus is on 32-bit MCUs, but 8- and 16-bit MCUs are used for specific applications like medical, automotive, micro finance handheld devices, health monitors, and home automation functions in the overall product. With more than 250 engineers in eInfochips embedded divisions, we work on most semiconductor vendor's MCUs."

Dexcel on growth drivers for Indian embedded design industry

It is my endeavor to write about semiconductors, solar/PV, EDA. FPGAs, embedded, etc., and related companies and solutions via this blog. One of the pleasures of writing a semicon blog is in being able to connect with and make a whole lot of friends from different countries, cultures, and companies, as well as bloggers.

One such gentleman is Ravinder Gujral or Ravi, as he's popularly called, Director – Business Development, Dexcel Electronics Designs Pvt. Ltd. Dexcel, based very much in Bangalore, India, is among one of the emerging companies in the embedded space in the country. Ravi contacted me, like several others, via my blog! Likewise, I was elated to find myself a new friend and reader! Later, we met during Altera's SOPC event, where Dexcel was exhibiting as well.

Dexcel is an electronics design house with capabilities in embedded systems development, firmware Designs and development, DSP processors based designs, imaging software, device drivers, Linux porting, system level designs and development, application and automation software, development of audio and video codec, telecom related stacks, board designs and FPGA based digital designs services, and providing end-to-end solutions to customers.

Dexcel has an alliance and partnership with Altera (ACAP and DSP partner), and with Analog Devices (DSP collaborator), Texas Instruments (DSP third party Network Member), Actel (solution partner), Atmel (AVR 8-Bit RISC Consultants), Montavista Linux developer, etc. Quite impressive!

Estimate of Indian embedded industry
Naturally, our discussion veered toward embedded. Providing his estimate of the embedded design industry in India, Gujral said as per the survey conducted by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) and Frost & Sullivan, the projected Indian semiconductor and embedded design industry will grow from $3.25 billion in 2005 to $14.42 billion in 2010 and to $43.07 billion in 2015. The Indian design organizations are moving beyond simple labor-cost arbitrage to become true contributors to product innovation.

Going forward, it is important to keep an eye on the drivers for embedded design. The main growth drivers for embedded software in the coming period will be mobile communications, military applications, networking devices and providing more intelligence and connectivity to consumer devices.

Gujral said: "The explosion of embedded devices is made possible mainly due to the rapid growth of semiconductor chips each year, and semiconductor devices becoming faster, cheaper and less power hungry. As the Indian domestic market is growing rapidly, this growth trend will continue. Simultaneously, there are technical challenges to design such products and services, and the availability of technical qualified resources has become more important."

Localizing product designs and manufacturing
Given that India's strength has been in embedded, would the biggest growth factor for embedded come from the localization of product design and manufacturing from India?

Indeed, it is! Gujral noted: "The growth factor for embedded companies will come from localization of product design and manufacturing from India. However, we should be doing well in localization of product design, rather than in manufacturing. Indian design engineers are strong in product innovation and design processes, while on the other hand, our manufacturing ecosystem is not as competitive as China."

Going forward, India should be focused on fine tuning its design processes and best practices to become more efficient and productive, compared to counterpart in the US and Europe. "We have to develop strong domain technical knowledge to bring more innovation in product development," added Gujral.

NI LabView solves embedded and multicore problems!

Some time ago, National Instruments (NI) introduced LabView 8.6. LabVIEW is a very data flow programming tool! And inherently, it has always been parallel processing!

Take note folks, as parallel is now increasingly becoming regular! And your multi-core problems could well be solved by NI's LabView.

Given the ongoing recession, interestingly, NI projects double digit growth in 2009 for the region comprising India, Arabia and Russia. Jayaram Pillai, MD, India, Russia & Arabia, NI, says that these places have been traditionally strong in localization. The key is: what can NI's technology bring in for indigenization!

Pillai notes: "We have always talked about virtual instrumentation. How can you bring the local content into the system?" NI's LabView's ability has generally been to create a program out of a non-program. "Images are your natural language. We feel engineers can express themselves using graphical language," he adds.

LabView inherently meant for parallel programming
Most embedded systems provide quick and easy solutions. NI is trying to put electronics into every problem that it confronts. About 98 percent of the processing environments are used elsewhere, other than the PCs. What embedded can do today is tremendous! NI's LabView is inherently meant for parallel programming.

Pillai says: "When you are running two cores, it is important how you share the data between the cores. We have multi-core for Windows. We can do multi-core programming for embedded as well." NI's tools perform multi-core programming, which itself is a software program.

Besides targeting particular silicon and other resources, there are other problems or areas to deal with, such as test maths, state chart and data flow programming, etc. NI has built all of these components into LabView 8.6 -- things such as programming MCUs, FPGAs, Power PCs, etc., can be handled.

Solve embedded problems by developing simpler systems!
Coming back to embedded systems, there are two requisite steps -- programming the electronics and programming the system. "We see ourselves getting into the space of solving multi-core problems," adds Pillai. "Everything today is software enabled. We intend doing for T&M what spreadsheet has done for financial analysis."

Definitely, software is the instrument in virtual instrumentation. "It means, to solve 98 percent problems of the embedded applications, there is a need to make the development of embedded systems even simpler," he contends, and rightly so!

"As we went higher in abstraction, we found that we were able to solve more problems. You've got to get into a high level of abstraction, which can be done by LabView, called system design platform. LabView today, is the platform for test and embedded," notes Pillai.

In grahical system design, there is a need to leverage and collaborate in parallel. Graphical programming harnesses multi-core processors. LabView has also been the runaway software tool for DAQ and instrument control. As a result, more and more people can now do embedded programming.

Pillai advices: "If you want to build systems, you need to integrate NI design tools with third-party design tools to share the data. The integration of data has to be seamless."

Benefits of graphical system design
Graphical system design should do for embedded what PCs did for desktops. "We are a graphical design company and are now building systems," he adds. The concepts of graphical system design include design, prototype and deploy.

So, what are the product lifecycle benefits of graphical system design? There are multiple hardware systems priced at different cost points based on performance. A LabView user can install the software into an expensive system for testing purposes, and later, deploy on to a lower platform.

Legacy problem and major paradigm shift
Sharing of data between cores is key! Parallel programming in sequential does not make sense. Rather, data flow programming makes a lot of sense. However, there is a legacy problem as far as multi-core programming is concerned. That is: how do you shift so much of the sequential programming knowledge into data flow? This will require a major paradigm shift.

Besides, there are a lot of sequential tools as well. There is a need to integrate all of that into multi-core. So far, multi-core problems have been addressed in test and embedded systems. It is still on in gaming, though! Maybe, this too will be cracked in a matter of time!

To all of my Chinese friends, Kung Hei Fat Choy!

What the semiconductor industry should do in 2009!

What should the global semiconductor companies do to combat the current downturn? Is the lack of exit options in semiconductors really stunting innovation, especially in EDA? Is the Indian semiconductor industry really mature enough to enable product development? Do we have an ecosystem that encourages product development?

These are just some of the questions buzzing in my mind, and within the industry. While there is maybe an answer to the first one, and maybe no ready answer for the second one, I would probably agree with what Dr. H.V. Ananda former managing director of Synplicity said to me in August 2007, that the Indian ecosystem will not enable faster product development cycles!

At least, I haven't seen any good or great Indian company or startup from India in the recent years to accept that we have learned the art of developing products! I am still waiting and sincerely wish that this situation changes very soon!

I recently got into a discussion with Abhi Talwalkar, the President & CEO, LSI Corp., post the 22nd international conference on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design and the 8th international conference on Embedded Systems in New Delhi, India, and quizzed him about LSI's thoughts on these and much more.

Three things to do for semicon firms
First up, what should the global semiconductor industry do in 2009? If there are three key things for semiconductor companies to do in this downturn, what would those be?

According to the LSI president, semiconductor companies should carefully manage their expenses and conserve cash. They should also develop conservative financial plans, which in turn will help them stabilize their balance sheets.

"Companies with strong financial capabilities and strong balance sheet will look to become stronger through this downturn. They should try to accelerate their market share through innovative practices.

"This should also be an opportunity for all companies to get closer to the customers, focus on their strategies and collaborate with them to help them come out stronger through this recession. Agility to innovate and meet with the customer requirements will help companies in developing a clearer focus on R &D and stronger executions," he said.

Does India have a product development ecosystem?
I still don't quite believe that India boasts a product development ecosystem, and am waiting for this to happen! On being asked this question, Talwalkar said that a product development ecosystem is dependent on the maturity of the end markets.

He added: "The Indian market is growing and will continue to grow both in terms of consumer and enterprise demand. This growth in demand will enhance the product development ecosystem as it will rationalize the cost of development. India still needs to fill in a lot of gaps to have a stronger product development ecosystem within semiconductor marketplace."

Continuing in the same vein, why haven't more startups happened in India, especially in semiconductors, especially in the recent years?

Referring to the ecosystem angle, Abhi Talwalkar noted that the success of startups is dependent on the existing ecosystem. "The growth of end markets will continue to encourage local ecosystem, especially in regards to native systems companies in areas of semiconductors. Currently, the system development is in its infancy in India, and with the growth of system MNC in India, it will grow.

The third point I had was: Is the lack of exit options in semiconductors really stunting innovation, especially in EDA? As I said, this is a very tricky one, and well, there has really been no answer to this one, as yet. Maybe, the answers will come in and be clearer as the year goes on!

The global semiconductor industry has had several headlines related to job cuts in the recent months. All of these layoffs have made me wonder whether there is going to be a drop in R&D, globally, due to the recession! If not, then why all of these layoffs? This is a point I've raised earlier!

Talwalkar said: "There will be drop in R&D with reduction in the top lines across the industry. There will be reduction in R&D budgets as companies will look to manage their expenses carefully as well as balance sheets."

Outlook 2009: India and global
Coming down to 2009, what is LSI's outlook for the Indian and global semiconductor industry?

Abhi Talwarkar said: "In the near term, the MNC India design centers will have to play significant roles. Their role is under appreciated and there are opportunities for them to grow further in the current economic scenario. The captive capability will grow as the cost structure and talent availability remains favorable here.

As for the global semiconductor industry, he added that the near term outlook will be challenging given the downturn and the rapid softening of product demand, especially in PCs, handsets, servers, consumer electronics, etc.

"In the long term, there will be positive growth in the semiconductor industry as the newer technologies get adopted in new product categories, -- automotive, healthcare, solar, consumer electronics, telecommunication infrastructure, etc., as well as the continued growth of electronic products, especially in India, China, Eastern European and BRIC countries," he added.

Several analysts have offered contrasting dates for an industry recovery. Even I am asked this question by several friends. My take is: do try and wait out this year, and consolidate, and try to continue to innovate, and prepare for the next industry upturn!

Perhaps, it is quite in line with what Malcolm Penn, chairman and CEO, Future Horizons, said recently, "Now, more than ever, is the time to work smarter not give up; the market will rebound, better start planning for that now!" Hope the industry is listening!

Seeking jobs in embedded! Can anyone help?

Ever since I have blogged about embedded companies in India, I've received a few messages, regarding jobs in the embedded segment in India. Some others have dropped hints about companies who haven't made my list!

It seems the companies are not hiring, or they've put hiring on freeze. Does it mean that not many projects are going on currently? Or, is there a way for freshers to make a start somewhere? For starters, those who want their companies listed in any top 10 list, are they even trying to help freshers or those looking for better jobs in the embedded space? What is their policy for hiring?

Or, are they too dependent on design services, so much that they do not have enough products to work on or develop! Or, maybe, they don't have many ongoing projects? I have had so many people tell me "India should do product development in semiconductors!" So, is that really happening? Or, is it merely a statement?

I did come across this web site called Dev Seeker, which is said to list jobs in embedded. DevSeeker also has a page that lists some of the embedded companies in India.

I also came across a blog on Monster, which lists several posts from some freshers, as well as some others who have actually asked folks to send in their resumes.

There is another web site from KBS Consultants, which has listed some jobs in the embedded segment. Another site, called GotAChance, also has links to jobs in the embedded space. Another search led me to a site called ITJobs.

By the way, I've no way of knowing whether any of the sites are updated, or, if they are, how frequently are those getting updated with the latest information. Sincerely hope that all of these sites are getting updated frequently!

Whenever I speak with semiconductor professionals, they don't stop raving about India's might in embedded. If that's the case, why are so many talented people not being able to find jobs? Or even worse, how do freshers get to make a start? I am not sure if companies offer freelance work for embedded software engineers. However, it is an option that could be considered.

There are several companies in China and Japan who are seeking fresh and good talent in the embedded space. A Japanese delegation visited India last August for the India-Fukuoka (Japan) IT, Embedded Software and Semiconductor Business Workshop 2008. Some of companies are:

* Daichi Institution Industry Co. Ltd
* DISCO (Dai Ichi Seitosho Co. Ltd) Corp.
* Inoueki Co. Ltd
* JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization)
* Kyushu Economic Research Center
* CLAIR (The Japan Council of Local Authorities for International Relations), Singapore

Prior to that, last May, the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) and the UK Trade & Investment and Science & Innovation Network launched a study titled "Scope for collaboration between India and the UK in semiconductor driven industry 2008.

I am also aware that China and Taiwan require lot of talent in embedded software and systems. They can surely make use of the talent available in India.

I am sure that all of these folks would be able to help out at least some of those looking to make a career in embedded systems and software. Otherwise, what's the end result of making such trips to India and talking about India's talent in embedded! Freshers need to make a start somewhere, so please help as many as possible.

To all of those freshers starting out to make a career, try and get the relevant experience, and the money will follow. Do not pursue it the other way round.

This is a request to the global embedded systems and software fraternity -- there are quite a lot of talented and fresh engineers in India in the embedded systems and software segment, who are also seeking jobs. Give them, or at least, some of them, a chance! Can you kindly help them?

Top 10 embedded companies in India

Right then! This topic should be of interest to several folks in India as well as overseas! Especially, those who are looking to tap the renowned Indian talent in embedded systems and software.

It is very well known that all the leading MNCs are present in India, and well, do great work in embedded systems and software. Definitely, any top 10 list of such companies would include the likes of:

* Intel
* Texas Instruments
* Freescale
* Philips
* Samsung
* LG Electronics
* And some of the other leading multinational companies.

However, my exercise is NOT to look for the leading MNCs in this domain, but to find out who are the leading Indian companies 'working' in the embedded systems and software space.

Some immediate ones that would spring to mind could be the likes of Ittiam, Sasken, Mistral, KPIT, Symphony, Mphasis, eInfochips, Infosys, TCS, HCL Technologies, Wipro, etc., perhaps.

There are so many others, including Yindusoft, Dexcel Designs, Ample Communications. Ibex, EmLabs, eSpark Infotech, i Micro System, Adamya Computing, etc.

However, I am not very sure how all of these companies are currently performing, nor is it possible for me to find out in a short time. Nevertheless, having been in close touch with some of these companies, it is quite possible that the downturn could be hitting some of the smaller companies, and maybe, even the bigger ones. Well, it is a downturn after all, and spends are not that high!

It is widely hoped that the very strong Indian embedded industry will overcome these problems and shine brightly in the new year.

In my list of the leading Indian companies in the embedded space, I am clubbing some of the larger companies, which are also into other activities, such as IT and outsourcing services.

In no particular order, my top 10 companies in the embedded systems and software space in India would be:

1. Tata Elxsi/Sasken
2. Ittiam Systems
3. Infosys/TCS
4. HCL Technologies/Wipro
5. KPIT Cummins Infosystems
5. Mphasis/BFL
6. Symphony
7. Sonata Software
8. Mistral/eInfochips
9. Dexcel Designs
10. Robosoft/Yindusoft

Yes, do feel free to disagree, friends! :) Again, I know this may not be a perfect list!

There are several companies in the embedded space within India who have been really doing outstanding work. I will try my best to contact as many of these companies and find out what these folks are presently working on!

I will also TRY and revise this list, IF I am able to round up as many companies, and am able to rank them, based on the solidity of their current projects, and NOT on the revenue gained in 2008. Again, I agree, this criteria may not appeal to all, but then it is my list :)

Therefore, feel free to disagree, folks... and please add several names of these great Indian companies in the embedded systems and software space, along with their email IDs, so I can easily touch base with them!

PS: One reader has mentioned about whether these companies have great products! Well, would be great if the companies could come up and say how great their products are!!

Thanks for the feedback, Mr. Nair, and good to have new names... :)

Another reader had mentioned ProcSys! Many thanks for those names, friends!

Embedded computing -- 15mn devices not so far away!

It has been close to three weeks since the Intel IDF @ Taipei, Taiwan. However, way too many things happened there, which still deserve a mention. One such event would be the keynote on embedded Internet by Doug Davis, Intel's Vice President, Digital Enterprise Group and General Manager, Embedded and Communications Group.

Today, there are 5 billion connected devices, and this number should likely go up to 15 billion by 2015, as per IDC. However, technology barriers need to be overcome. Davis cited these challenges as reliability and long life, software scalability, low power and low cost, privacy and data security, IPv4 addressing and open standards. As of now, the Intel architecture (IA) is said to be (due to lack of any good competition) the preferred architecture for the embedded Internet.

While on embedded products, post the Intel Atom processor, Davis said that the Menlow XL is likely for a Q1-09 introduction. The associated market segments include retail, PoS, digital signage, kiosks, vending, ATM, etc.

On digital PoS for retail markets, Davis highlighted India, and rightly so, adding that digital retail PoS would find applications, given the growing and quite affluent Indian middle class. Such a digital PoS device could improve inventory management and transaction security, allow more efficient space utilization, etc. Yet another application is digital signage for business intelligence [as informative displays].

Davis showed all of us MediaCart's example. MediaCart is providing a unique shopping experience. It is trying to revolutionize the shopping experience with a computerized shopping cart that assists shoppers, delivers targeted communications at the point of purchase, and streamlines store operations. Incidentally, Singapore's Venture GES was contracted by MediaCart to develop the new shopping experience cart.

Pervasive embedded computing
Davis believes that embedded computing would become more pervasive in the days ahead. "The Intel architecture has all of the unparalleled scalability to meet these needs," he added.

Davis estimated that China could go on to become the world's largest semiconductor market over the next five years or so. Semiconductor TAM for industrial automation is likely to grow from $13.5 billion in 2008 to $17.5 billion in 2012. India is said to be the second largest destination for industrial automation, which is interesting, and something to look forward to.

Digital factory
We have all had some visions, sometimes of how a digital factory would look like? And, who would be working at such a factory. Possibly, robots, or industrial robots would make up the attendance!

Well, if KUKA, a company that builds the world's leading robotic and automation devices is to be believed, we are a little closer than before to this vision or dream. Bruno Geiger, managing director, Asia Pacific, KUKA, pointed out in his chat with Davis that the company makes robotic and automation devices based on Intel's platorms. That, 'takes us closer to the vision of a digital factory!' This is a great example of multi-core in industrial automation.

Portal for embedded designers
Getting back to the embedded Internet, Davis said that the greatest challenge for customers is to integrate new technologies. To address this need, Intel is investing in a new Web portal for embedded designers. He announced that the Intel Architecture Embedded Design Center, a Web portal for embedded designers, will likely get launched in the spring of 2009. This is indeed something to look forward to!

Asia has all the trappings to become the largest market for embedded computing, and Taiwan, the largest market for automation. Well, don't count India out! Embedded systems and software is India's strength, and don't be surprised to see and hear about lots of such activities from the country.

Yindusoft rocks embedded domain for India across Apac

India has, for long, been the acknowledged 'embedded superstar' of the world! It is in no danger of losing that top position, especially in the near future, as several Indian firms in the embedded space continue to rock the world.

One such company is Yindusoft, established 2006, a software services company focused on the following domains: embedded software for IC design houses, OEMS/ODMS in consumer electronics; IT solutions in the semiconductor manufacturing sector; and distribute and customize higher end IT software products in the two areas.

G.K. Pramod, CEO, and a former member of Cybermedia/IDC said: "We are a two-year old company! We cover Asia Pacific especially, Taiwan and Singapore. We would like to expand into Korea and Japan, hopefully, by the end of Q4 2008."

Yindusoft is present in two domains: providing IT solutions to large semiconductor manufacturing companies, being the first. Pramod said: "We are working with companies like TSMC, UMC, etc. We work with them in CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing). We recently completed a project on wafer analysis in Taiwan. Our engineers developed the software to cut the wafers into precise shapes. We have onsite engineers with TSMC in Taiwan and UMC in Taiwan and Singapore. Now, we are aggressively positioned ourselves in the CIM space for semiconductors."

The second important domain are OEMs/ODMs. Yindusoft develops embedded software for OEMs/ODMs. Pramod added: "We develop the software for these companies. In Taiwan, we have done work on digital signage systems. We worked on the UI design. We did development on the UI design itself, along with market research, and therefore, the customer received market feedback as well."

Yindusoft has two recent design wins: designing of digital signage application for a large OEM/ODM in Taiwan. and designing of set-top box application for a large OEM/ODM in Asia Pacific.

Commenting further on Yindusoft's design wins, he said: "We completed a large project in the area of digital signage product development with the help of an embedded product development domain expert. Our domain consultant adopted methods like market research, making global product feature list and getting the UI design development from design experts who are from art and design background (and, not IT background)."

Too early to estimate Indian semicon
Pramod added that it was quite early to estimate the strength of the Indian semiconductor industry as fabs are yet be commissioned for production. The Indian embedded design industry is estimated at $4-5 billion in 2008-09.

Commenting on the drivers for embedded design, Pramod said these could be the design capabilities of Indians and the requirement of low-cost consumer products. "Big markets like India and China would require lot of consumer devices for common man applications," he said.

Customers expect strong domain expertise today. Definitely, and I completely agree on this," he added. "We need domain expertise to speak the "customers' language, make the project successful and show the differentiating factors in our service delivery."

As mentioned, Yindusoft also works with the STB companies. "We are developing an STB (Set-top box) application. Typical applications would be PVR, email application, parental security, etc.," he said.

Yindusoft is also trying out a model called offshore solutions center. Pramod said: "We have identified pain areas of customers, like OEMs/ODMs and semicon companies. Till such time the companies don't develop the necessary software skills, there orders can get rejected. They can't add value to their products. Therefore, profitability is a major issue with them. Next, they also have a language problem and cannot provide the essential technical support. Also, they cannot enter the Indian semiconductor market because of these reasons.

"Hence, we are now trying to build up a solution for them. One is the ODC, which is regular. The second factor: localization of their product for the Indian market, is an example. We also have a demo center. We conduct the market research for a particular product and then set up a demo center in India for that product. After that, there's the technical support center."

Way forward for embedded
Would the biggest growth factor for embedded come from localization of product design and manufacturing from India? What's the way forward?

Pramod said that the biggest growth factor for embedded could come from the localization of product design, and it will be the driving factor. "In fact, we provide this as a value addition to our customer, he added. "Indians need to focus on designs, which is our core strength." However, he felt that China would still lead in manufacturing.

Finally, what did the Indian semiconductor industry offer to the world, and why should the others should come here?

Pramod listed six key capabilities: Design capabilities of Indians; VLSI design, IC design capabilities; software integration capability; good software knowledge; India is also a good pilot market to launch new embedded products; and India is a strategic location for Asia Pacific markets where there is a good ecosystem for the semiconductor industry.

The company's head office is located in Bangalore, while it has two overseas offices in Taiwan and Singapore, respectively.

Yindusoft's vision is to be the leaders in providing software services for IC design houses, OEM/ODMS and semiconductor manufacturing companies.

The mission is to act as a software consultant in new product development by providing cost effective co-working models and establish offshore solution centers (OSC) in India. Best of luck!

Japan semicon firms seek close ties with India

The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) recently organized the India-Fukuoka (Japan) IT, Embedded Software and Semiconductor Business Workshop 2008. A host of companies and institutes from Fukuoka, Japan participated in the workshop seeking partnerships, alliances, and business in the semiconductor space in India.

My first impression was that all of the Japanese firms present at the workshop are quite interested in the Indian semiconductor market, and especially in the embedded space. Besides, some of them may look at investments, should the opportunity arise. Some of the participants are also looking at the direction fabs are taking in India, besides the solar/PV market.

The participating companies and institutes at the workshop were:

1. Daichi Institution Industry Co. Ltd
2. DISCO (Dai Ichi Seitosho Co. Ltd) Corp.
3. Fukuoka University
4. Fukuoka Industry, Science & Technology Foundation
5. Inoueki Co. Ltd
6. Invest Japan
7. JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization)
8. Kyushu Economic Research Center
9. CLAIR (The Japan Council of Local Authorities for International Relations), Singapore

Masane Saito, Chief, JETRO, said that the total trade between India and Japan was worth $9.9 billion during 2007, a 25 percent growth. India's strengths included knowledge-based services, high-quality talent, etc. He added that Japan required a lot of embedded systems engineers, perhaps, hinting at Indian engineers and the opportunity that lies ahead of them.

Todd Takaki, Director, Inoueki, clearly highlighted that his company was looking at the manufacturing segment in India. A semiconductor trading company, it delivers chemicals to IC fabs, among others. He added that companies from Japan needed to see the inroads being made in India, both frontend and backend. While Inoueki is also looking at making investments in the country, Takaki stressed the need to have a developed market.

Akihiro Kawaguchi, International Science Technology Co-ordinator, Fukuoka Industry, Science & Technology (IST) Foundation, highlighted the Fukuoka Cluster for advanced system LSI design and development. He also touched upon the Silicon Sea Belt Fukuoka Project, which streches from China, covering South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, right up to Bangalore, India. This belt has the potential of the world's largest semiconductor market (60 percent), emerging car industry market, ever-developing wireless market, and the world's largest population of engineers.

The Fukuoka IST is also part of the Knowledge Cluster Initiative, a national program carried out by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), in co-operation with the local governments.

Dr. Hajime Tomokage, professor, Fukuoka University, touched upon the semiconductor business network via the MAP (microelectronics assembling and packaging) and RTS (reverse trade show) programs.

The Kyushu silicon island has a 6 percent share of the global IC production with over 20 percent raw wafers. SUMCO has four fabs in Kyushu. The silicon island also has 16 fabs, including those of Renesas, Toshiba, Sony, NEC, Yamaha, etc. Overall, it is home to nearly 650 semicon related companies. Kyushu is now looking for Asian customers, and specifically, from India.

Some other features include the national project on SiP (system-in-a-package) and MEMS, which have been place since 2002, as well as the SiPOS (System Integration Platform Organization Standards) platform.

Keiji Honjo, Leader, Product Innovation Sales Group, DISCO Corp., touched about his firm's business. DISCO's activities revolve on: manufacture and sale of precision cutting, grinding and polishing machines; maintenance of precision cutting, grinding and polishing machines; training in the operation and maintenance of precision cutting, grinding and polishing machines; disassembly and recycling of precision cutting, grinding and polishing machines; lease of precision cutting, grinding and polishing machines, and sale of used machines; manufacture and sale of precision diamond abrasive tools; and for-fee processing. It is also seeking business interests in India.

Yutaka Akagawa, Executive Director, Daichi Institution Industry Co. Ltd, said the company is also into 8Gen LCD business. It transfers the glass substrate for the LCDs. The company highlighted Clifter, a device, which carries the wafer cassette, LCD cassette, and so on, vertically, with the holding cleanliness to the clean room on the up-down floor.

Interested Indian companies desirous of tying up with these Japanese companies are welcome to send in their queries.

In my next blog, I will discuss specifically what India brings to the table for the semicon world to go to India, and especially, Japanese companies, since we are on Japan! This is also a request from a friend from the Far East!! I may be a bit inaccurate in my assessment, but I will try my best.

India is Xilinx's most active region for design activity!

Xilinx has been a global leader in programmable logic solutions with over 51 percent market share during 2007, according to iSuppli. PLDs represent an exciting growth potential in the chip market thanks to their flexible nature and ability to change functionality even after being manufactured.

I caught up with Vincent Ratford, Senior Vice President, Solutions Development Group, Xilinx, to find out more about the company's role in India. Firstly, Xilinx clearly sees India and Asia/Pac as a high growth area for its business.

Ratford said: "India itself has a lot of design activity with many of our customers working with design services and IP companies there. For that reason, we have invested in a large engineering team (125 people and grew last year at 60 percent) working on IP, software, system applications and IC design. These teams augment global development teams around the world with some teams having product responsibility."

As a company, Xilinx tracks design activity and production, and India is its most active region for design activity. It is also investing a lot in university programs.

He added: "We have significant market share in India vs. the other FPGA vendors. We expect this to continue. We are investing heavily in our Xilinx University Program providing tool, board, training for professors and setting up FPGA, embedded and DSP curriculums. We have a strong technical team supporting customers locally either directly or alongside of our distribution partners."

So how does Xilinx view the strength of the Indian embedded design segment? Ratford referred to EETimes, which conducts a survey annually on embedded processing. The most recent data showed only about 1/3 of the embedded users using FPGAs, but over 50 percent of them were considering.

He said: "I think we have just scratched the surface on our embedded opportunity. We have over 10k licensed embedded users worldwide, with the smallest percentage in Asia/Pac, but it's growing rapidly.

"We think there is a lot of unlicensed, and therefore, untracked useage. Going forward, we will be able to track adoption more closely. We are now starting to track useage with our WebTalk tool and have found that about half of the designs using our latest 10.1 release have processors on them. Finally, when we conduct seminars and workshops worldwide, our embedded sessions are the most heavily attended."

On the role that Xilinx would be playing in India, he said: "Today, we have a strong offering in soft and hard processors for our Virtex and Spartan series FPGAs. We are investing in training and providing development kits to expand the number of embedded developers who can support our platforms.

"We have been developing embedded peripherals, device drivers and are now starting to develop embedded tools there. We expect to expand this. So it's market development, product development and enabling our ecosystem partners to build on top of our platforms. We are investing in India faster than any other region and plan to leverage our development team there."

Has the Indian silicon wafer fab story gone astray?

The recent news of the Hyderabad Fab City giants -- SemIndia Fab Pvt Ltd and Nano-Tech Silicon India Pvt Ltd -- being served notice by the local state government and to explain the reasons for their delay in setting up the Fab City in Shamshabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad, does not come as a surprise at all!

Setting up of a silicon wafer fab takes up a lot of time and money, and I am not sure how this bit is perceived by many. Also, the rate of return is not exactly immediate! Maybe, it is time for everyone to realize that semiconductor is a very different industry from any other, and there is a need to understand how it really functions! Besides, one needs to keep an eye on the global semiconductor industry and associate movements there with what kind of value would a fab in India bring to the world.

This May, I'd done a reality check on where the global semiconductor is placed. Several folks have contacted me since, pointing out my accuracy. While it is good to be spot on with the assessment of the global (and Indian) semiconductor industry, the assessments should serve as a warning for the global (and Indian) semiconductor industry -- that it is not going to be an easy ride ahead!

On the same note, I had earlier questioned whether this was the right timing for setting up fabs in India. Perhaps, there is a need to examine whether we started on the fab path a bit too late! If we are found to be wrong or hasty in our assessment, let us feel no anguish in accepting that! This is not the first time such a thing will happen in the semiconductor industry, nor will it be the last. Having said that, if a wafer fab or two do start functioning in India later in 2009 or beyond, that would be exemplary!

Let us hope that the Indian silicon wafer fab story does not go astray for the overall benefit of the Indian semiconductor industry. There is a need on part of the Indian semicon planners to integrate clear vision with careful planning.

Yes, several solar fabs are coming up globally, and investments in solar/PV are rising as well in India, but that was along expected lines.

It was also pointed out earlier that investments in photovoltaics (PV) had somewhat eased the pressure on capital equipment makers and spend. In fact, 2007 is now well documented as the year when the PV industry emerged as a key opportunity for the subsystems suppliers and provided a timely boost in sales for those actively addressing this market.

Perhaps, here lies an opportunity for India, and I'm repeating this to the extent of sounding boring!

Further, even though it has been quite a while since the Indian semicon policy was announced, some feel that India should continue to focus on design services and embedded -- its well known strengths, rather than go after something as mature as wafer fabs. We don't have to 'force ourselves to believe' that we are good at product development? We are not!

Yes, like most things, it can change, but that would need great effort on part of all industry stakeholders. The question is: are we ready to bring about that change?

Now, UK seeks semicon ties with India!

Just a couple of days ago, I had touched upon the growing global interest in the Indian semiconductor industry. Well, late last evening, I was present at the release of an important study that seeks collaborations between semicon firms from India and the UK! Talk about interest!!

The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) and the UK Trade & Investment and Science & Innovation Network has launched a study titled "Scope for collaboration between India and the UK in semiconductor driven industry 2008". The report was launched by Richard Hyde, head - British Trade Office, Bangalore and ISA chairman Jaswinder Ahuja.

Given India's growing presence in the global semicon industry, the study comes at the right time. UK and Indian semiconductor firms can collaborate to boost India's IP creation and build next-generation products. There are potential synergies between the two nations in areas such as design, applications and devices.

Indian semicon firms specialize in VLSI, hardware/board-level design and embedded systems in wireless communications, computing and networking. In turn, the UK's strength lies in IP creation and complete product development.

Richard Hyde remarked that there was lot of compatibility between the UK and Indian semiconductor companies. The study also laid the foundation for the forthcoming Semi Conclave, scheduled for September 15-16 in Bangalore, to be followed by similar events in Hyderabad and New Delhi. "It will bring together the industry and the academia, along with a visiting delegation from the UK." This event will be jointly organized by ISA, UKTI and SIN.

V. Ravichandar, CMD, Feedback Consulting said the first challenge while preparing the study was to find high-quality data. The ISA in India and the NMI in the UK had such data.

He added: "Firms that exist in India and the UK are essentially design firms. They become complementary as you collaborate." He highlighted IP creation and product development as the strength of the UK firms, and computing, networking and communications as the strength of the Indian semiconductor firms.

The best fit -- Indian universities and UK universities -- can be leveraged in the short run. Commenting on clusters, while these were built around places such as Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi in India, the UK has clusters in South-East England -- in hardware design, Scotland, East England -- software engineering, and a balance mix of companies in the South-West of England. India can provide skills in VLSI and EDA, as well as the large talent pool.

The next best fit lies in collaboration between the UK companies and the talent pool in India, which could go a long way in bringing down the research costs. Another fit could be between the companies in the UK and India, or the UK universities and Indian companies. However, the Indian companies might not be able to bring in the kind of funding required for high-end R&D as they are not mature enough.

Another fit could well be sharing of best practices, such as those brought by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and EUROPRACTICE.

"The Indian government also needs to come forward beyond the semicon policy." Ravichandar added. "There is scope for 30-40 percent reduction in R&D expenses, should collaborations happen between semicon firms from the UK and India."

Poornima Shenoy, president, ISA, added that the ISA had initiated a Country Series, focusing on specific geographies of relevance to the industry. The report with UKTI is the first in this series.

India's growing might in global semicon

It is no longer a secret that India is fast becoming the world’s destination, and increasingly the source too, for semiconductors. India also shows the most rapid growth potential among the BRIC countries.

Speaking at the recently held International Electronics Forum (IEF) 2008 at Dubai, organized by Future Horizons, S.Janakiraman, the outgoing Chairman - India Semiconductor Association, and President & CEO – R&D services, MindTree Ltd, touched upon India's growing might as a being the third largest country in terms of purchasing power parity, as well as its growing presence in the global semiconductor industry.

It is no surprise that the current market drivers in India happen to be mobile phone services, IT services/BPO, automobiles and IT hardware. Add to these are the facts that India is very strong in design tools, system architecture and VLSI design, has quite strong IP protection laws, and is quite strong in concept/innovation as far as the semiconductor industry is concerned.

Testing and packaging are in the nascent stage. While India lacks a semicon wafer fab, as of now, there have been several announcements regarding solar fabs by leading firms such as Videocon, Moser Baer, Reliance, etc.

In the electronics manufacturing domain, India's strength lies in hardware, embedded software and industrial design, OEMs, component distribution (includes semiconductor and box build), and end user/distribution channel, as well as more than moderate strength in product design and manufacturing (ODM, EMS).

India is likely to witness $363 billion of equipment consumption and $155 billion of domestic production by 2015. India’s electronic equipment consumption in 2005 was 1.8 percent. It is likely to grow to 5.5 percent in 2010 and 11 percent in 2015, as per a joint study conducted by the ISA and Frost & Sullivan.

The Indian semiconductor TAM (total available market) revenue is likely to grow by 2.5 times while the TM (total market) is likely to double revenues in 2009. The TAM is likely to grow at a CAGR of 35.8 percent and the TM is likely to grow at a CAGR of 26.7 percent, respectively, during the period 2006-09.

Telecom, and IT and office automation are currently the leading segments in both TM and TAM. Consumer segment occupies the third fastest growing area in the TM, while the industrial segment is the third fastest growing area in the TAM.

The major semiconductor categories include microprocessors, analog, memory, discrete and ASIC, while the major end use products include mobile handsets, BTS, desktops, notebooks, set-top boxes and CRT TVs.

Emerging base of EMS firms
India is also becoming an emerging base of EMS companies, thereby completing the electronics ecosystem. Five of the top 15 EMS companies globally have set up their manufacturing facilities in India. These include Celestica, Elcoteq, Flextronics, Jabil Circuit and Solectron. Two other large companies are in the process of setting up plants -- Hon Hai Precision Industry and Sanmina-SCI.

Nokia has set up its manufacturing facility as well. It has invested $210 million in the plant since January 2006. The India plant has set another benchmark of achieving the fastest ramp up across all Nokia facilities worldwide. Currently, approximately 50 percent of the production from the plant is consumed domestically and the rest is exported to other countries.

Indian embedded design industry
The Indian embedded design industry has been going from strength to strength. The recent IDC-ISA report puts revenues from India's VLSI, board design and embedded software industry to grow to $10.96bn by 2010 from the current $6.08bn in 2007.

As of 2007, embedded has 81.1 percent share, hardware board design 6.3 percent; and VLSI design 12.3 percent, respectively.Source: ISA.

The challenges and focus areas for the embedded design industry include manpower -- focusing on increasing productivity, creating readily deployable engineering workforce, and focusing on developing high-end skills.

Another area India is working on is moving up the semiconductor value chain. India is now focusing on end-to-end product development, investing in IP development, developing India specific products, and partnering with OEMs to understand the market needs.

The challenge is posed by the cost structure. India needs to better address cost management, i.e., increasing infrastructure and salary costs, as well as managing the dollar's impact.

India design inside
Several global products have been now developed out of India. Some recent examples are: Harita Infoserve Ltd is developing interior parts and conducting computer tests on components for General Motors Corp.

Next, Ittiam’s videophone design will become almost entirely an India story: part of the chip, the product design, the software and, finally, the manufacturing also done here. Plexion Technologies has worked on the interior design and windows for a DaimlerChrysler (DCX) bus.

Quasar Innovations designed and developed a dual SIM card — PTL910 mobile phone for Primus, to be launched in the European market. The mobile phone allows the user to have SIM cards from Primus for two countries, with the phone automatically choosing the correct SIM depending on the user’s location.

Finally, MindTree itself has designed a feature rich satellite handset with mobile handset form factor for a European company.

Attractive semicon policy
India's semiconductor policy is likely to attract investments of over $10bn. The government of India will bear 20 percent of the capital expenditure during the first 10 years for units located inside SEZs and 25 percent for those outside.

For semiconductor manufacturing (wafer fabs) plants, the policy proposes a minimum investment of $625mn. The same for ancillary plants would be $250mn.

The government's participation in the projects would be limited to 26 percent of the equity portion. The key benefit here is the grant of the SEZ status.

India’s evolving ecosystem is driven by the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) opportunity. Tata Motors announced the now famous Nano -- the Rs. 1 lakh (sub $2500) car -– said to be the world's cheapest car. This has been indigenously developed in India, for India, by Tata Motors.

Nano has passed all mandatory crash tests and Euro IV norms. It is likely to be commercially launched in the second half of 2008.

All of these make India the most happening semiconductor and electronics destination. Don't be surprised if companies not having an India strategy in place miss out on the action!

Indian design services to hit $10.96bn by 2010

This is a continuation of my previous blog on the Indian design services segment.

Revenues for the VLSI, board design and embedded software market in India are likely to touch US $10.96bn in 2010, according to an ISA-IDC study titled India Semiconductor and Embedded Design Market, 2007-2010. This market will grow from US $6.08bn in 2007 to US $7.37bn in 2008, on to US $8.97bn in 2009, respectively.

The total design services market in India is said to have grown at 21 percent year on year (y-o-y), as against a global growth of 6 percent y-o-y. According to Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC (I) Ltd, the impending recession in US and sheer volume of work from US will put pressure on man-month rates and they will increase marginally. Currently there are close to 200+ companies active in India.

Touching upon the market trends for 2007 in the India semiconductor and embedded design market, he added that India will continue to be the preferred destination of choice for companies interested in embedded design and development.

There will also be an increased emphasis on IP development, as third-party design services companies look to move up the value chain. Next, localization of products design and manufacturing from India will drive significant investments by product and design services companies leading to a further fueling of growth.

However, he cautioned that the industry will continue to face significant challenges in managing the demand and workforce churn. The industry will also have to constantly evolve, upgrade and innovate, while keeping the costs down in order to stay cost competitive in the global market. Future trends in this industry will further witness the increasing proximity between the third-party service providers and OEMs for end-to-end product design.

Indan design services industry snapshot
The Indian VLSI design services contributed approximately 13 percent to the overall revenues and 11 percent to overall workforce. There has been an increase in consumer and portable/wireless segment, that has indirectly contributed to the growth of the VLSI design service industry in India. Spec to tape-out designs are gradually increasing as well, largely contributed to by the captive units. The IP development will continue to grow steadily during the forecast period.

The Indian hardware/board design industry contributed to 7.2 percent of the overall technical workforce in the design services industry. The trend of VLSI design houses transforming into one-stop design houses has increased the activity in the hardware/board design area. Growth is likely to come from consumer electronics and portable/wireless product segment in 2008. Product development activities for the Indian market will further boost growth.

The Indian embedded software industry is by and large, the most significant contributor. Embedded software contributed approximately 81 percent to the overall design services revenues and 82 percent to the overall workforce. Having a local manufacturing ecosystem will boost this segment with end-to-end product development and roll-out happening from India. Singh said that middleware/embedded applications along with testing will drive the growth in the market.

Two vectors for industry
Singh added that there were two vectors that the industry could go to. One, focus on export revenue and go closer to markets -- to their customers' markets and be part of product development. And two, focus on product development, as it would drive semiconductors and embedded design. He termed the growth achieved in the last three decades as version 1.0 and said India was ready to move on to version 2.0 in the coming years.

In version 2.0, the dynamics between the semiconductor industry ecosystem players would be transformed in the coming years. Also, there will be a disruption, which will see the entities shift their strategies, align and engage with each other within this ecosystem in a manner that will take them up one level in the overall product value chain.

E.K. Bharat Bhushan, director general, STPI, commented: "India is a very important destination. A wide range of design activities are now going on here. Semiconductor design has made rapid strides. India currently has strengths in areas such as IP development, and core advantages in terms of talent and local domestic market."

Can we expect exciting times in 2008?

Welcome 2008! May I wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2008. Another year's gone past. We have a habit of looking back to see at what happened and what could have been.

A lot has been written already about 2007 and what to expect in 2008. So let's just touch upon some of the events from 2007 and some expectations from 2008.

For India, 2007 was a great year for the semiconductor industry -- first, the Indian government announced the semiconductor policy, followed some months later by the fab policy. Both were tremendous firsts in India's science and technology, and not IT, history. Everyone hopes that the Indian semiconductor industry will take off this year. Eyes are focused on the embedded segment, what with the global semiconductor industry reportedly facing 'an embedded dilemma.'

An issue hitting the EDA industry is that, the cost of designing or developing the embededded software for an SoC actually passed the cost of desgining the SoC itself in 2007. The world needs to avoid this software crisis, and India is well placed to take full advantage and play a major role, given its strength in embedded.

In IT, it's been a mixed sort of a year for Apple, which hit big time with the iPhone, seemed not to make waves with either the Safari browser or the Leopard OS. Microsoft had the Vista OS, but then, Vista didn't exactly warm the hearts of users or those who wished to upgrade their OS, including yours truly. Maybe, 2008 would ring in better times for Vista.

While on browsers, Firefox has gained lot of ground. However, by the end of 2007 came the news that the Netscape Web browser -- which started it all -- would soon be confined to history.

Netscape Navigator was the world's first commercial Web browser and launch pad of the Internet boom. It will be taken off on February 1, 2008, after a 13-year run. Time Warner's AOL, its current owner, has reportedly decided to kill further development and technical support to focus on growing the company as an advertising business. The first version of Netscape had come out in late 1994.

In gaming, there are admirers of Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360, and will remain the same. Which one of these gaming consoles will reign supreme, eventually, is difficult to predict.

In consumer electronics, lines are surely blurring between portable media players (PMPs) and portable navigation devices. Also, it would be interesting to see how digital photo frames survive 2008. A reported tight supply, especially for seven-inch models, has led to some makers in Asia either postponing mass production or extending lead times. Surely, makers cannot add more entertainment functions in smaller screen models, to keep costs down.

In the security products market, IP cameras and video servers should have a better year, with more emphasis now on video surveillance. In fact, some friends have been querying me as well regarding their potential.

On components, we can hope to see more growth for solid polymer capacitors in 2008, and among PCBs some fabricators should start manufacturing high-density interconnect (HDI) PCBs this year.

In wireless, we should witness TD-SCDMA in operation prior to the Beijing Olympic Games. Backers would like to see TD-SCDMA succeed, given the effort Datang-Siemens has made on the technology, as also the Chinese government, which issued spectrum for TD-SCDMA nearly five years ago!

Let's all welcome 2008 and look forward to more exciting things happening.

Top 5 semiconductor trends in India during 2008

And what's in store for the Indian semiconductor industry during 2008? Well, expect the Indian semiconductor to grow at 25-35 percent in the coming year!

S. Janakiraman, president and CEO –- R&D Services, Mindtree Consulting, and chairman, India Semiconductor Association (ISA), said at a recent meeting that those questioning India's need for fabs would feel terrible on missing out on the opportunities currently being provided by India, by 2015.

Here are the top five trends you can get to see happening in India in the semiconductor space in 2008.

1. More growth for India

The Indian semiconductor industry has been forecasted to grow by 25-35 percent during 2008 by the ISA.

2. Increase in design activities

On the design side, we are seeing an increase in various activities. More complex analog and digital designs are happening. More of physical designs are happening, including taking those designs up to the foundries – those are also increasing.

3. More of ATMP initially

In 2008, we will be seeing more of the assembly, testing, marking and assembly (ATMP) happening in the country.

4. Fabs some time away

The fundamental fabs are still a little far away. Most companies likely to start off by initially testing waters by making some level of investments in ATMP before moving on to fabs. One cannot rule out prospect of some leading Indian company investing in fabs.

5. Product companies will emerge eventually

Product companies are likely to emerge, although, they may start off by first manufacturing electronics products, and later move on to the emergence of semiconductor product companies.