VLSI’07, India’s largest event for the semicon sector formally inaugurated

The 20th edition of VLSI Conference the biggest annual event for the Indian semiconductor sector was formally inaugurated by Wim Roelandts, President, CEO and Chairman of Board, Xilinx Inc. this evening with Mr J .Parthasarathy, Director, STPI-Bangalore as the special invitee. Dr. Biswadip Mitra, President of VLSI Society of India (VSI) and Managing Director, Texas Instruments India and, Apurva Kalia General Chair, VLSI 2007 conference and R&D Group Director, Cadence Design Systems shared the dias. Dr. Anand Anandkumar, Managing Director, Magma Design Automation India moderated the proceedings. The conference which has the status of an IEEE conference is expected to draw over 1200 delegates from across India and the world besides thousands of visitors to the exhibition.

In his keynote, Wim Roelandts, CEO of Xilinx commented that the stagnation that the technology industry went through post the 2000 meltdown is over and the industry would witness unprecedented momentum starting 2007. He predicted that everything has become nanoscale with a new forth dimension which is one nano-dollar per gate. He called upon Indian companies not to limit innovation to engineering and exhorted them to go beyond it.”

In his remarks, Mr. J Parthasarathy, said,”The new semiconductor policy which will be announced shortly will provide further momentum for the semiconductor industry. He also stressed that the government is doing its best to address the infrastructure issue in Bangalore. He projected that as IT exports from India leaps from US$24 billion this year to US$40 billion in the next year, the semiconductor sector would see a similar leap over its current US$1.2 billion in exports. We are aware of the acute talent challenge and have convened a meeting next week with heads of all the local technical universities, the IT secretary, catalyzed by the STPI where the possibility of integrating VLSI into the regular engineering curriculum will be discussed.” “The industry at its current growth level will need 10-12 times the current manpower level of 65000 engineers,” he further added.

According to Apurva Kalia, General Chair of this year’s conference,” The theme chosen for this year’s conference – Nanometer Design Challenges - is very timely and relevant to the Indian VLSI and Embedded Systems Industry. As design migrates to nanometer geometries, more and more Indian companies are in the forefront of defining the cutting-edge nanometer design flows. This conference will provide these engineers a perfect forum for exchange of ideas around this complex problem.”

In his address, Dr. Biswadip Mitra highlighted the need to look at the talent challenge more closely and said the VLSI society is trying to address this through its program which attempts to add 10000 professionals annually. He also spoke of the need to have trained faculty to support this talent creation and highlighted that the challenge needs to be taken more seriously. He also spoke of the need to go beyond the glamour of metros into Tier II and III cities of India where the real talent pool lie.

According to Taher Abbasi, Publicity Chair, VLSI Conference Committee,“This edition of VLSI has already broken new records – from the number of entries to the design content, attendance at the just concluded tutorials and response from the industry. This VLSI will also be the first one to have special sessions, which kicks off with the first CEO conclave addressed by Mr.Narayana Murthy tomorrow morning. With all of this action, we hope this VLSI will live upto the expectations as it is being held for the first time in Bangalore- the home of the Indian semiconductor industry.”

The various sessions planned and special events besides the industry forum schedule:
- Panel Discussion: IP Standardization – Double edged sword?
- Special Session: Semiconductor IP Law in the Indian Context
- Lunch Session: Protecting IP in India - does the proposed semiconductor law achieve protection?
- Panel Discussion: How does the semiconductor Design Industry view EDA today? Commodity or Valued Partner?
- Special Session: Harnessing human capital to build effective engineering engines
- Panel Discussion on: “Role of Government as a catalyst for promoting growth of semiconductor industry”
- Panel Discussion on: What will encourage more entrepreneurs to businesses in India? Why are there not enough VC’s in India?
VLSI-2007, the 20th edition, is the forum for researchers and designers to present and discuss various aspects of VLSI design, electronic design automation (EDA), enabling technologies, and embedded systems. The conference has a status of IEEE conference with Innovation, Education and Research as the focus. Previous conferences were held in Kolkatta, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, among other places.

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