Actel Corp sets up design centre in Hyd

Mount View, California-based low-power field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices manufacturer, Actel Corporation, has set up its 150-seat design centre in Hyderabad.

“We already have outsourcing partnerships with California-based design services firm QualCore Logic Inc and Wipro. However, we wanted to go via a captive route in India,” Fares Mubarak, senior vice-president (marketing and engineering), Actel, told mediapersons here on Friday.

The 20,000-sft facility houses 55 professional, including 35 who were transferred from QualCore. The company will be ending this calender with about 80 professional and have an over 100-employee count by 2010, he added.

“The India design centre is critical to our growth and success. Our goal is to continue to outgrow the competition with a strategy to target non-traditional FPGA markets and applications. Functions such as engineering, integrated circuits design, validation, software and IP development and verification will be carried out from here. Besides, the centre will be involved in developing major derivatives based on various FPGA platforms,” Mubarak said.

The Nasdaq-listed $218-million (approximately Rs 1,068.2 crore in FY08) company, which has 80 per cent share of the aerospace market, is targeting consumer, industrial, automotive, communications, military and space segments for growth. The global market for FPGA is currently pegged at $24 billion.

“The US and Europe contribute 52 per cent and 25 per cent respectively to the revenues, while Asia Pacific and the rest of the world account for 23 per cent. Asia is now the fastest growing and we expect 15-20 per cent growth from this geography year-on-year, in line with the market momentum,” said John East, president and chief executive of Actel.