Regional Update

ASIC DESIGN CENTER OPENS IN SINGAPORE
To better service ASIC designers in Singapore, Toshiba Electronics Asia Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corp, has opened a design center. The facility is staffed by three engineers and contains a workstation and CAD terminals linked via satellite to the company’s Kawasaki, Japan, central LSI design facilities. . . .

EDN Asia, June 1992


INDIA PURSUES ASIC DESIGN
Indian technology companies are beginning to design ASICs for customers in India and abroad. The Bombay-based DCM Data Systems diversified into ASIC design from computers and software development. The company’s ASIC Design Group has been designing >250K-gate ASICs for MNCs such as IBM
and NEC. . . .

EDN Asia, December 1998


JOINT-VENTURE WAFER FAB OPENS IN SHANGHAI
Philips Semiconductor opened a wafer fab facility in Shanghai to manufacture bipolar and CMOS devices for low-power, low-voltage applications. The factory will produce ICs in 5-in. wafers for use in TV, telephone, remote controls, and radio applications for the Chinese domestic market and
for export to South East Asia. . . .

EDN Asia, July 1992


PENANG EMERGES AS DESIGN CENTER
Penang isn’t just a great place to unwind and get some sun. More and more electronics companies are thinking of it as a great place to design products. Motorola established a manufacturing facility there in 1974; two years later it opened its first Asian R&D facility in Penang. Today the R&D group employs 100 engineers. . . .

EDN Asia, January 1994


TAIWAN AIMS AT 0.18µM PROCESS
Bidding to make Taiwan a leader—rather than a fast follower—in IC technology, the government
is sponsoring a project aimed at developing 0.18-µm back-end processing modules. While the private sector is working to catch up with Korea and Japan, the state-subsidized ERSO is looking further ahead. . . .

EDN Asia, February 1997






KOREA MOVES FROM MEMORY CHIPS TO ASICS
Korea’s semiconductor exports expected to have touched US$11.5 billion in 1994. Just as Japanese semicon firms utilized their technical expertise in memories to develop other businesses in the 80’s, Korean manufacturers of memory chips are using their fab technologies to move into highly integrated ASICs. . . .

EDN Asia, February 1995


HONG KONG SERVES A WIRELESS TEST BED
With a large number of mobile-phone users in a cramped, radio-hostile environment, Hong Kong presents a serious challenge for wireless communications. Because of this, the territory is becoming a proving-ground for the latest technologies. . . .

EDN Asia, April 1996



JAPAN WRAPS ITSELF IN THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The Internet’s latest craze, the World Wide Web, is increasingly driving the development of
Internet use in Japan. While some companies scramble to use the Web to promote their wares, others are developing products for web applications. Japanese companies are hurrying to develop their own home pages. . . .

EDN Asia, July 1995