AMD to Design Microprocessors in India

by Anton Shilov
04/25/2004 | 09:16 AM

Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s second largest maker of microprocessors for personal computers, said it would expand its research and development operations in Bangalore, India. The company plans to design future generations of central processing units in India.

The AMD India Engineering Centre Private Limited, which is expected to open in July, will contribute to the design of future generations of AMD microprocessors. The standalone facility will occupy approximately 38 000 square-feet and will be located in the central business district of Bangalore. AMD is expected to hire 40 employees at the site this year, and by the end of 2005 expects the design center will house up to 120 experienced chip design and development engineers. Engineers at the design center will work closely with AMD’s engineering teams in the USA and will help define future microprocessor designs focused on meeting the evolving user needs in India and other high-growth markets.

“India, and Bangalore with its well-developed ecosystem for the design of advanced semiconductor products, is a critical technology nexus in this region. We have aggressive goals to enhance our leading-edge 64-bit microprocessor offerings and bring advanced technologies to the largest number of customers around the world,” said Ajay Marathe, corporate vice president, IT, Global Supply Management and president of AMD India.

AMD plans to invest approximately $5 million over the next three years to establish the center and ramp up operations. The AMD India Engineering Centre Private Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Micro Devices. As a certified Software Technology Park of India facility, AMD is expected to benefit from government incentives, including exemptions from certain income and sales taxes and exemptions from import customs duty and taxes on capital goods.

AMD did not elaborate which chips are to be developed by the Indian R&D facility. AMD’s next-generations processors are K9, which is expected to be showcased in late 2005, and the K10, which is a totally unknown chip.

It was indicated in late 2003 that the first samples of AMD K9 will be released in the second half of 2005, 3.5 years after the AMD showcased its early K8 processors. Historically it took about three to four years to develop a micro-architecture of a desktop microprocessor, but the first indications of the K9 product development start belong to March 2003, right after the Opteron went into mass-production. Today’s claim of Mr. Weber points toward a tight schedule for AMD K9 development process.

AMD is looking at adding multi-threading pattern into its future microprocessors in order to improve overall performance. Multi-core design would give a more substantial speed bump compared to that brought by technologies similar with Intel’s Hyper-Threading.