While the electronics industry stresses strengthening India’s design capabilities, low-power FPGA solutions provider Lattice Semiconductor set up a research and development centre in Pune in a bid to provide and develop innovative solutions for its clientele in India. In an exclusive conversation with EFY’s Yashasvini Razdan, Lattice’s Ford Tamer answers the question — Why India?
Q. What brings you to India?
A. We have been visiting India for the past two decades. While at Broadcom, I helped establish a design centre in Bangalore and acquired Level 7, which had operations in Chennai. Later, while on the board of Marvell, I worked with its design centre in Pune. I have always recognised the depth of India’s electronic and software talent.
Our engineering vice president, Pravin Desale, is originally from Pune and has successfully launched multiple design centres in the city. When I joined Lattice Semiconductor about four and a half months ago, the Pune design centre was already operational. Today, we celebrated its grand opening, demonstrating our commitment to leveraging India’s talent.
Additionally, India’s geopolitical importance and expanding customer base make it a key region for us. Our sales and field application engineering teams in Bangalore are dedicated to supporting local customers.
Q. What are the challenges in the electronic semiconductor industry that Lattice intends to address with an R&D centre in Pune?
A. Shortening design cycles and increasing costs in advanced process nodes (e.g., 3 nanometres and 2 nanometres) are major challenges. FPGAs provide flexibility by enabling rapid prototyping and software updates, avoiding the high costs and long timelines associated with application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). For fast-evolving areas like security and AI, FPGAs offer adaptability to changing requirements. Our Pune design centre focuses on creating solutions in vision, security, and edge AI to address these challenges.
Q. Why should an electronics embedded design company design in India?
A. India offers exceptional access to talent in silicon design, software engineering, and AI development, which aligns with our hiring goals. While the competition for talent in India is intense, it still provides cost efficiencies compared to other regions.
We compete with major global companies like Google and Amazon to hire highly skilled AI and machine learning experts, silicon designers, and digital signal processing (DSP) software engineers. Having a global footprint allows us to leverage the unique strengths of different locations while optimising operational costs.
Q. Do you view India as a consumer market or as a talent pool for developing solutions?
A. Both. This centre designs solutions for customers worldwide and tailors products for local and multinational companies in India. For instance, we collaborate with semiconductor companies, electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers, and major local players like Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Tejas Networks.
India’s strong localisation strategies align with our approach to addressing the needs of local and global markets. This centre also supports regional operations in Asia-Pacific, with data centres and support systems complementing our efforts in Manila, Penang, and Shanghai.
Q. What kind of talent are you seeking, and how are you collaborating with academia?
A. We work closely with institutions like IIT Bombay, IIT Indore, and local universities in Pune. We engage students through internships, onboarding programmes, and collaborations on master’s and PhD-level research projects. By providing practical exposure to students, we intend to contribute to bridging the gap between academic curriculum and industry requirements.
For advanced roles in AI and machine learning, we prefer candidates with master’s or PhD qualifications. However, bachelor’s degree holders are often sufficient to validate silicon or compiler-related tasks.
Q. How does having an R&D centre in India align with your global innovation strategy?
A. At a high level, Lattice focuses on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which involve silicon, software, and artificial intelligence (AI) expertise. We have silicon engineers working on chip design (hardware design layer). Another team focuses on developing software tools and soft intellectual property (IP) solutions. We have also hired engineers with AI expertise to create market-relevant solutions and integrate AI into our devices.
We know the critical importance of the quickly evolving segment of AI for innovation; hence, we are categorising AI separately from software and hardware.
Q. What challenges did Lattice face while setting up the Pune R&D centre?
A. We were initially concerned about bureaucratic hurdles, but the support from government bodies like STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) and various local agencies was exemplary. The approvals and processes were expedited, allowing us to build and operationalise the centre in just eight months! We currently have nearly 70 employees and expect to surpass 100 in the next few months.
Q. How does Lattice view competition in India for its products?
A. Globally, there are three major players in the FPGA space: Lattice, AMD, and Altera. While AMD and Altera focus on large FPGAs, we lead the small to mid-range FPGA market, shipping between 200 and 250 million units annually. Our strategy is to focus on differentiated solutions in the small to mid-range FPGA segment, which aligns well with India’s growing focus on wearables, hearables, and industrial automation.
Q. Does Lattice plan to partner with startups and industry giants in India to foster innovation?
A. We recently hosted a developers conference with over 6000 participants and 90 partners, including Indian companies like VVDN and Agilent. Startup collaboration is important for boosting innovation and addressing market-specific challenges.
Q. Any plans on developing or working with open-source tools or RISC V?
A. We are exploring opportunities to integrate more open-source tools into our processes, particularly in soft IP and RISC-V. By providing RISC-V soft IP and embracing open-source strategies, we aim to support India’s electronics design ecosystem, which is evolving rapidly.
Q. Do you have any plans to get your solutions manufactured in India?
A. As a fabless company, we rely on partners like TSMC and Samsung for manufacturing. However, as India develops its semiconductor capabilities, including fabs and assembly facilities, we may explore opportunities for localisation.
Q. In your opinion, is establishing a design ecosystem more important than setting up a manufacturing ecosystem first?
A. Both ecosystems must grow simultaneously. A robust design ecosystem needs to be complemented by manufacturing and assembly capabilities to ensure a seamless supply chain and faster time-to-market for products.
Q. What is your outlook on emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and 5G?
A. AI remains the brightest spot in the industry, driving innovation across markets such as data centres, industrial automation, and automotive. IoT is also gaining momentum, particularly in industrial applications. While 5G adoption has been slower, we expect it to recover in the coming years.
India’s entry into these markets may have been delayed, but its rapid growth and adoption rates are creating significant opportunities. FPGAs will play a critical role in supporting these technologies, particularly in edge AI and industrial IoT.