Demand for better energy management to boost MCU adoption

Bangalore, Oct 16 (UNI) Greater demand for better energy management, growing automobile and telecom sectors will drive the sales of microcontroller based equipment in India, which now accounted for just one per cent of the world semiconductor market, Microchip Technology Inc CEO, Steve Sanghi, said here today.

Speaking to media persons on the plans of the company, which is the world leader in manufacturing the 8-bit micro controller units (MCU), he said adoption of digitally programmable microcontroller solutions in the three sectors would see India grow faster than the rest of the world.

The world demand for microcontroller market had slowed down to 7-8 per cent during the last few years after a fast paced growth during the last two decades. However, India would see faster growth as its consumption level remained low, he said.

India would play a key role in Arizona-based company's future and it was planning to significantly increase its investment in education and training programmes to help the country meet the growing demand for microcontroller-based applications, the CEO said.

"Microchip, which achieved total sales of US Dollars one billion last year, is the biggest seller of 8-bit microcontrollers in India with a 500-strong customer base. We doubled our sales during the last three years," he said.

To equip its customers with the latest technology and product knowledge, we are investing heavily in technical training through our three training centres in Bangalore, Pune and Delhi. It had trained more than 10,000 engineers and engineering students last year alone through seminars, workshops, regional training centres and University programmes, he said.

Mr Sanghi said the India Design Centre of Microchip Technologies had been making major contributions in IC designs, mask layout, application, software and tool development. Its key success included products like PIC18, PIC23 and dsPIC DSC designs, he added.

UNI