PUNE: ‘National Seminar on DSP VLSI Design and Applications’(DVDA-2001)
was organized by the Department of Electronic Science (DOES), University of Pune
and Integrated Circuit and Information Technology (ICIT) Pvt. Ltd.
Chairman and managing director of SCL Chandigarh, Dr. M. J. Zarabi,
inaugurated the two- day National Seminar on DVDA- 2001. He gave an overview of
semiconductor technology in India and announced the India Chip Program.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Vijay Bhatkar of ETH, Pune, who
emphasized on hardware design entrepreneurship. The DSP-VLSI design represents a
huge market potential worldwide which is driving innovation. Digital Signal
Processing (DSP) and Very Large Integration Circuits (VLSI) Design are gearing
up in our country. Large number of industries are dealing in these areas and lot
of opportunities exist and trained manpower is needed.
The seminar was addressed by eminent speakers representing academic
institutions and corporate houses from all over India covering topics like DSP
Algorithms, DSP Architectures, VLSI design strategies, EDA tools, DSP
Applications, Technology trends, Cost effectiveness and limitations, DSP in
instrumentation and Industrial control, Machine Vision.
Amongst the speakers were Nayan Suthar —C-DAC, Sunil Kumar Sahu, National
Instruments, Bangalore, Malay Vyas from Texas Instruments, Bangalore, Arun
Chandorkar, Madhav Desai, Dr. Vikram Gadre all from IIT, Mumbai, Dr. Vishwas
Udpikar, Wavelet, Pune. They delivered talks focussing on the current status,
design trends, contemporary R&D activities and futuristic growth directions.
Speakers stressed on the fact that the integrated circuit (chip) design industry
is pegged to grow into a multi-million dollar market in India. Chips and
processors are now used in almost everything —from aerospace to computers,
complex electronic gadgets to everyday applications, mobile phones, dishwashers
and so on. It is the Very Large Scale Integration design engineer’s efforts
that make these work. They conceive and designs miniscule chip and later send
them for manufacturing. The reason why this sector is outsourcing its
requirements to Indian companies is the fact that though integrated circuit or
IC falls into the hardware category, the IC design work is a ‘soft’ job and
can be exported even over the Net. Even if the market dips in this cycle, the
demand for chip design engineers holds steady.
The VLSI territory is vast and unexplored and the rewards are good for those
who get specialized training in VLSI design. Moreover, the industry analysts
have estimated that semiconductors will become a $400 billion industry in the
year 2002. There is going to be unlimited need for professionals trained in VLSI
design with companies like IBM, Intel, Texas, Motorola, Wipro etc. Texas is
already setting up their design centers in India. Integrated Circuit and
Information Technology (ICIT) Pvt. Ltd. ICIT has joined hands with DOES to
ensure best possible training in this field through a certificate course.
The ASIC design industry has grown many fold during the last decade and the
design process these days requires a thorough knowledge of such design tools and
the demand for promising young designers equipped with in-depth knowledge of
VLSI design tools is ever-increasing. The panel concluded that system level
Intellectual Property cores should be generated with an increased
entrepreneurship attitude and proper emphasis should be given on training of the
young talent.