Sasken Technologies, speaks about his company and the technology trends that are taking world by storm in a discussion with Pradeep Chakraborty of CIOL. Excerpts:

CIOL: Sasken was earlier known as SAS and its focusing was on the product development. It later moved on to services. Why and how did this shift happen?

Rajiv C. Mody: Sasken has always been, from day one, doing products and services together. We started out in the EDA space and we had one product in the simulation space. We were writing a simulator, which was addressing large complex designs and methods to simplify the designs. Simultaneously, we were also doing a lot of services for large telecom companies in the areas of designing. We continued that and expanded in the area of telecom.

Subsequently, we started building our own products in the telecom space. However, one significant difference I would like to highlight is that anything that we do, it impacts our customers' top line because we address the R&D side of the business.

CIOL: Not so long back, you were also a VLSI player. When did the shift happen toward becoming a communications company?

RCM: We started out as a design tool and telecom company in 2000. We decided to disband our design tool part of the business and focus completely on communications. Now, we do a lot of our business in the area of chip design, which is part of very large-scale integration. Today, we are the leading providers of semiconductor design, doing all kinds of complex system-on-chip (SoC) as well as 65-nanometer design.

CIOL: How many patents does Sasken currently hold?

RCM: Sasken has filed for 39 patents so far, of which 16 have been granted. Those remaining are in the process, and typically, once we apply for a patent, it takes four years before it is granted.