Agere to double India team

Agere Systems, the $1.8 billion semiconductor software company, has announced plans to double its development team in India to 400 from the current 200.

The corporation was formed after Lucent spun off its Microelectronics Group in 1998, and employs 7,000 professionals globally. The company offers chips and software solutions for wireless data, high-density storage and multi-service networking applications.

Agere, as part of its expansion, has set up its second development centre in Bangalore and with this ramp-up it will become the largest development centre outside the US. The company has so far invested close to Rs 100 crore in the Indian operations and will look at investing further as and when the projects for the Indian operations increase.

Said Madhusudan V Atre, a veteran Bell Lab scientist and MD, Agere India: "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."

The Indian unit currently designs software tools, firmware, besides chip and system on chip related design, verification and layout.

Agere's chips and software power a broad range of computing and communication platforms, from cell phones, PCs, PDAs, hard disk drives and gaming devices to some of the world's most sophisticated wireless and wireline networks.

Added Atre: "The setting up of a new centre in Bangalore is driven by the increasing importance of our Indian team in Agere's growth. We foresee new projects, especially in the area of ethernet to come to India and this expansion makes Agere one of the leading semiconductor players in India."