Axiom opens new R&D centre in India

BANGALORE, INDIA: Axiom Design Automation has opened its new R&D facility in Bangalore. This is the second R&D center for Axiom in India, the first being in Mangalore. Axiom is the first semiconductor design company to set up an R&D center in the country. It also announced investments worth US$3 million in India. Axiom has plans to increase the headcount to more than 150 by end 2008.

“Today, there is lot more focus on consumer oriented products. Such products demands lower cost and fast time-to-market. So, designing such products is a real challenge for EDA companies, as it demands more design skills. These challenges are constant and will continue to exist,” said Dr. Prabhu Goel, EDA expert and founder of Verilog Language, who inaugurated the new facility.

Axiom will be providing complete ASIC/SoC front-end solutions including methodology, tools and services to its customers. "Customers are looking for platform-based designing than designing a product from the scratch so that they can reduce time-to-market. Moreover, one product needs to be designed differently for different markets while there is a decline in design budgets as well. That's how we decided to come up with complete design platforms which can be customized easily," said Badru Agarwala, president, CEO, Axiom.

“Significant investments in R&D become a natural evolution as India continues to have a major impact in our overall business and the company heads to record a 100 percent growth this year,” he added.

The company's tools have been used in more than 15 successful tape-outs. Their major clients include nVIDIA, RMI, Cortina Systems, Matisse etc. In India, Axiom is also targeting service companies like Wipro and HCL.

Axiom acquired SysChip Design Technologies in 2007 and is partnering with Manipal University to organize training and workshops in IC design.

EDA and verification markets

The global EDA industry is predicted to grow by 7.8 percent in 2008 against the growth of 11 percent in 2007.

"EDA is historically a low-growth industry. It never witnessed an extraordinary growth. However, the 80s or 90s are not going to be replicated anymore. Smaller companies in the EDA space may witness a real fast growth whereas larger and leading companies may only witness a slow and steady growth," said Dr. Prabhu Goel.

He added that although in US, the EDA industry may witness a lag in 2009, there probably may not be a recession worldwide in the coming years. "US, as a whole, is witnessing a lag. But, it's very difficult to predict where the global market is heading."

According to Ravi Shankar, managing director, Axiom India, the silicon design ecosystem is witnessing great progress in India. The company is will be focusing more on ASIC/SoC verification. “Especially, India is growing fast in the verification service space, which is a $700 million industry globally. Verification tool is another key area."

"Today, more and more chips are getting packed into lesser space. So, the growth is not actually on the physical design side. But there is a huge growth potential in the verification side," added Dr. Prabhu Goel.

“Verification challenges are increasing exponentially with linear increase in design complexity. Talent engagement thus becomes critical to adopt new tools and methodologies for on time delivery," said Avtar Saini, chairman, Axiom Inc.