Agere opens new design center in India

BANGALORE: Agere Systems has opened its new India Design Center to expand the company's semiconductor design presence in India. Agere Systems India, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Agere Systems Inc., announced the expansion of its chip design operations in India with the opening of a new 32,000 square foot facility at International Technology Park in Bangalore.

With this expansion, Agere Systems now has two sites in India with the capacity to house more than 350 people. The company has now invested approximately $25 million in its India facilities and employs 200.

The opening ceremony was attended by Shankaralinge Gowda, Indian Administrative Service, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology, Science and Technology, Government of Karnataka, and B V Naidu, Director, Software Technology Parks of India—Bangalore.

"Our Bangalore team is increasingly shouldering comprehensive strategic chip design, development and support responsibilities, which necessitated this expansion. The people here are expected to play an increasing strategic role in Agere's future," said Jonathan Fields, vice president of design platform technology for Agere Systems at the inauguration of the new facility this week.

Madhusudan V. Atre, managing director, Agere Systems India, said "the addition of this new facility to the existing site is driven by the increasing importance of our Indian team in Agere's growth. This expansion makes Agere one of the leading semiconductor players here."

Agere Systems India designs software (tools, firmware, reference design, applications) and semiconductors (chip and SoC related design, verification, layout). Agere Systems India Private Limited has its registered office at International Technology Park, Bangalore. The company is also registered under Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).