NEC Electronics unveisl liaison office in India

Bangalore: NEC Electronics has set up the company’s first liaison office in India. The office in Bangalore will provide technical assistance and design support to MNCs with operations in India and aid local firms in the implementation of NEC Electronics devices.

Head-quartered in Japan, NEC Electronics is a semiconductor company that provides microcontrollers, semiconductor solutions and power management systems.

Direct presence

Through the new liaison office, NEC Electronics, which already has a customer base and distributor network in India, is looking to capitalise on a direct presence in the region and increase availability of information about its products, said Mr Krishnan Neelakantan, Director of the India Liaison Office. The Bangalore office will also facilitate partnerships with local design companies.

The office will be supervised by NEC Electronics subsidiary in Singapore. In the long term, the company may look at India to create a regional office or subsidiary.

In India, NEC Electronics deals with micro-controllers, system-on-chip and semiconductor devices. It is looking to enter the home appliances segment too. The company also sees potential in set top boxes.

NEC Electronics expects sales of ¥12 billion generated through Indian connections and support by the financial year 2010 (¥2 billion from local sales and ¥10 billion from MNCs in India), said Mr Neelakantan.

Wipro Technologies has been picked by NEC Electronics to provide semiconductor design services.

Centre at Wipro

An offshore development centre was inaugurated by the President and CEO of NEC Electronics, Mr Toshio Nakajima, at Wipro’s Electronics City facility in Bangalore.

The centre will provide front-end and back-end design services and IP to NEC Electronics for application specific integrated circuits and micro-controllers in digital consumer and automotive areas.

Wipro will also work in designs ranging from 150 nm, 130 nm till 55 nm.

About 25 engineers will be working on the NEC Electronics project.

Mr Sudip Nandy, President – Telecom and Product Engineering Solutions, Wipro Technologies, said: “Wipro will leverage its VLSI experience, coupled with our in-house design methodology – Eagle Wision – to deliver first time right designs to NEC Electronics.”