Bangalore, Nov 19 - Freescale Semiconductor Inc, the $6.4-billion global leader in design and manufacture of embedded chips, will now focus on consumer and industrial markets, a top company official said here Monday.'To accelerate growth, we are strengthening our core businesses by leveraging our expertise and increasing our share in markets like India and China,' said Freescale business operations vice-president Jan Monney at the third Freescale technology forum (FTF) being held here.Delivering the keynote address at the opening session, Monney said the global semiconductor industry was maturing and becoming less cyclical due to consolidation among electronics OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and more effective supply chain management (SCM).'With the semiconductor industry worldwide crossing the $300-billion mark, we see a growth rate that will be in line with the global economy. Our commitment to be a global leader in embedded processing and connectivity solutions is reinforced by restructuring and investing in capacity building and research and development (R&D),' Monney told about 1,000 semiconductor delegates participating in the forum.US-based Freescale, bought by a consortium of private equity investors led by the Blackstone and Carlyle groups for a whopping $17.6 billion last year, has stepped up investment in R&D to $1.2 billion.It also increased its chip manufacturing capacity by investing $700 million in its six wafer fabrication facilities.Freescale firm's India operations consist of an R&D centre, including a design centre at Noida near Delhi and a software development centre in Bangalore.It employs about 1,000 engineers in the country and caters to Indian and overseas firms by designing and manufacturing chips used in automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless sectors.The centre of excellence at the India design centre, which has filed about 30 patents in the past two years, is the company's largest facility outside the US.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
