Meanwhile, Over in Pennsylvania....
Sony to form chip design center in Pittsburgh;
Tyco joins Pa. SoC initiative
By EBN Staff
Electronic Buyers' News
(07/06/00, 07:57:39 PM EST)
Sony Electronics announced today it plans to establish a Semiconductor Design Center in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Tyco Electronics has joined the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, a nonprofit organization nurturing the electronics industry the Pittsburgh area.
Sony's commitment is a major development for the Digital Greenhouse, which was founded a year ago with the goal of making Southwestern Pennsylvania a worldwide leader in the development of next-generation system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology.
Sony is a founding member of the Digital Greenhouse, which includes Oki Electric, Cadence Design Systems Casio, Cisco Systems, Compunetix, and Cable Design Technologies, plus Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Pittsburgh.
The Sony Semiconductor Design Center will begin operations this fall and will develop technologies for semiconductors for the broadband network. A startup team of 6 to 10 people will staff the center initially, and that number is expected to grow.
The Design Center will be directed by Yoji Kato, president of the Semiconductor Business Division of Sony Electronics in San Jose.
"As Sony redefines its mission as a broadband entertainment network company, we expect our new Pittsburgh Semiconductor Design Center will be a strategic R&D facility," said Suehiro Nakamura, senior executive vice president of Sony Corp.
"We have seen, in the past year, the talents and capabilities of our partners at Carnegie-Mellon, Pitt and Penn State, and we anticipate working closely with them and with their best and brightest students who, hopefully, may someday become part of the Sony family."
Initially, the Sony Semiconductor Design Center will focus its efforts on designing chips that incorporate personal security technologies for the Internet. In the future, the company will expand its activities to wireless network and broadband network-related semiconductor technologies.
"When we embarked on this mission a year ago, our initial goal was to build our membership roster and provide pre-competitive research money to visionary academic and industry scientists in and around western Pennsylvania," said Dennis Yablonsky, CEO and president of the Digital Greenhouse. "Sony's commitment, and that of our other partners, underlines the major strides we have made in establishing our region and state among the top high-tech clusters in the nation."
Tyco Electronics, though based in Harrisburg, said it is committed to the region and the Digital Greenhouse concept. Formerly AMP Inc. before it was acquired last year by Tyco International Ltd,, the company makes a wide variety of connectors, circuit-protection devices and relays, to passive and active fiber optics and wireless communications components.
The Digital Greenhouse today also added three new Pittsburgh-area associate members: Ansoft Corp., a developer of design software for electronics systems; MAYA Design Group, an industrial-design and development consultant; and Tollgrade Communications Inc., a test-systems maker for telecommunications equipment.
As part of their membership in the Digital Greenhouse, each company will assign a senior technical representative to attend Technology Advisory Board meetings, and will receive preferred access to SoC research and training modules funded by the Digital Greenhouse.
Also today, the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse announced funding of $1 million for four projects in its Electronic Design Technology Program. The money went to four universities for work in "smart products," including devices for home automation, hand-held devices for wireless communication systems, digital television and set-top boxes. The projects are expected to begin by Aug. 1.
Last fall, the Digital Greenhouse awarded a total of $1.9 million for 10 projects to two local companies and three universities.
"The quantity and quality of ideas and research in digital chip design is deep in Pennsylvania," said Yablonsky.
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