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Semiconductors
the first of five centers opened through 2006 to provide computer instruction for both male and
female high school students. Among other support, Applied Materials provided the solar panels
to power computers at the centers.
Xilinx Inc., headquartered in San Jose, is a leader in programmable logic solutions, emphasizing
field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology. Like other semiconductor
design firms after the tech bubble burst, Xilinx moved increasingly into foreign markets
and Asia in particular. From 1999–2003, the Asia-Pacific market grew from 13% to more than 35%
of the company’s business.
Xilinx began designing chipsets in India in 2004 under a strategic partnership with Tata Group
embedded design subsidiary CMC Ltd. A joint Xilinx-CMC India Development Center (XCIDC)
in Hyderabad began designing solutions for the consumer electronics, automotive and telecom
sectors. The XCIDC engineering staff doubled from 30 to 60, and the center was so successful
that Xilinx and CMC explored the possibility of opening a spin-off of the facility as a separate
company in 2005. Instead, Xilinx opened its own 33,000-square foot captive R&D center in
Hyderabad in October 2006, with a staff of 75 and capacity for 300.
Xilinx India managing director Akshya Prakash explained the company’s strategy for attracting
and retaining talent in a February 2007 interview with the Cybermedia India Online (CIOL)
Network saying, “In a high-end industry like semiconductors, one of the primary motivators for
engineers to work is to allow them to work at the cutting edge of technology. At our design
center in Hyderabad, we work across what we call ‘full life cycle’. This means that the engineers
are not just involved at the last stage of the product life cycle, but right from the beginning.
From the conception of the idea, design, coding, and the final delivery of the product, engineers
are fully involved.”
Xilinx CEO Wim Roelandts acknowledged in the same interview that the FPGA talent pool is still
relatively small in India, and experienced managers with 10–15 years of training are in even shorter
supply. The answer has been to encourage longtime Indian engineers at Xilinx in the U.S. to return
to India as managers. The company is also involved in the Special Manpower Development
Program, assisting elite Indian universities with specialized tech curricula and programs.
Today, Xilinx employs about 100 design engineers in India and sees India as a global R&D hub,
providing designs for production by primarily Chinese original equipment manufacturers. Where
80% of its business in 2000 was in telecommunications, that share is now 45%, with another
45% in networking, and the remainder in consumer electronics.
The future, Xilinx management believes, lies increasingly in the digital convergence of communications,
computing, the Internet, “smart” handheld devices, and appliances, in fields ranging
from cell phones, to automobiles, to aerospace, to health care, to home entertainment, to energy
distribution and management. In 2007, Xilinx launched a $75 million Asia Pacific Technology
Growth Fund, headquartered in Singapore, to invest in innovative FPGA applications, as well as
new technologies throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including India.
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