Silicon Image, which provides mobile and consumer electronics connectivity solutions, has set up its R&D centre in Hyderabad, the first in India after Sunnyvale and Shanghai. The India centre would contribute towards developing semiconductor chips that resolve connectivity issues and also strengthen the patents portfolio of the company, according to its CEO Camillo Martino.

The US-based firm which has been operating in India for the past couple of years also wants to double its workforce here, from existing 80 employees, in coming two years.

“The Hyderabad centre will work closely with the other two design centres and develop products that are unique to the local market eventually. We are strategically looking at investing and acquiring in high volume growth markets and India definitely has a huge potential. Indeed in this two phase expansion, we would later also develop products that are unique to India and build a marketing team as well,” Martino said.

Right now the company has 600 employees globally and almost 60 per cent of this strength is engineers. “Silicon chips contribute 80 to 85 per cent of our business and IP sales the rest. We have been successful in developing HDMI (High Definition Multi media Interface) and MHL (Mobile High Definition link) and Wireless HD apart from SPMT (Serial Port Memory Technology) and MHL standards for mobile. By the end of this year we will also be able to develop 4K Ultra High definition,” he said.

It is estimated that there are around 22 HDMI enabled products shipped every second and there could be over 100 million MHI enabled smartphones. The company claims nine of top ten consumer electronics makers use their technology. “Interaction with local universities and being close to the market and end user will help us come up with better solutions,” said Rashid Osmani, VP, worldwide engineering, Silicon Image.

trushnaudgirkar@mydigitalfc.com