On Thursday, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices announced plans to set up an engineering center in Bangalore to boost its microprocessor design program. The new facility is likely to open in July, with about 40 employees, and the company plans to have about 120 chip designers and development engineers working there by the end of the next year, AMD said. The company plans to pump about $5 million into the facility over the next three years.
Bangalore is already home to design centers for chipmakers Intel and Texas Instruments. Cadence Design Systems, a maker of software used to design semiconductors, has development teams working in Bangalore and Noida. And Geneva-based chipmaker STMicroelectronics plans to expand its facilities in Noida and to add a new center in Bangalore.
AMD is the second U.S. company this week to have announced expansion plans in India. 3Com said it is setting up a center in Hyderabad, India, to work on voice over Internet Protocol software and applications.
AMD said the new center will contribute to the design of future generations of microprocessors. Employees at the site will work online in conjunction with AMD's engineering teams in the United States. The facility will also help develop chips for emerging markets like India and other countries in Southeast Asia. AMD cited "outstanding engineering talent" and "cost advantage" as reasons for selecting Bangalore.
"India and Bangalore, with its well-developed ecosystem for the design of advanced semiconductor products, is a critical technology nexus in this region," Ajay Marathe, AMD's vice president of global supply management, said in a statement.
