SMART ENGINEER

Are you really a Smart Engineer? If yes, you should be really good at
exploiting the script languages and automating the design process. My point is a
good VLSI engineer must be really comfortable in writing scripts and running
simulation in batch mode. Today most of the young engineering graduates use
even Linux as Windows. Its a big problem. The trainers in VLSI training schools
too do not urge people to use scripts. Its time for us to train the trainers on design
automation.

I have recently visited one of my MNC customers, who has already

employed our Aceic engineers as contractors for his projects, to understand his
expectations from my engineers, in terms of technical expertise and skill sets. He
told me very precisely that VLSI engineers must be good at technology and
automation as well. I shared my concern and told him about the current scenario of
young engineers. Immediately he suggested me one thing that I should remove the
mouse from all the computers. You might be surprised or even confused. Yes, he is
100% right. This is how we can really force the engineers to use commands.

We engineers in industry use VI editors and scripting languages like Perl

pretty much to write the programs and automate the simulation respectively. I
don't think that you really need somebody like me to guide you to learn them.
Google is just enough!

VLSI SECTOR TO GENERATE 75K JOBS BY 2015

The very large-scale integration (VLSI) chip designing segment will

generate 75,000 job opportunities in India by 2015, according to JA Chowdary,
president, Hyderabad chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

“About 25,000 people are currently employed in the VLSI designing

industry in the country. With rapid growth expected in the coming few years, the
segment will employ 75,000 people by 2015,” Chowdary told mediapersons at the
three-day 25th International Conference on VLSI Design and the 11th International
Conference on Embedded Systems, which kicked off in Hyderabad on
Monday.Dasaradha R Gude, convener of the conference, said: “Embedded systems
market, which is one of the key drivers of Indian research and development (R&D)
offshoring and is currently pegged at around $25 billion globally, is growing at a
compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16 per cent”.

As many as 50 eminent speakers are delivering lectures at the silver jubilee

conference with the theme ‘Embedded Solutions for Emerging Markets –
Consumer, Energy, Automotive’, in which 450 delegates from around the world
are participating.

Long-term trends for the semiconductor industry and electronics are robust,
driven by engineering excellence and creativity, according to Jaswinder S Ahuja,
corporate vice-president and managing director of Cadence Design Systems in
India.

Delivering his keynote at the conference, Ahuja said with ‘killer apps’
driving innovation, mobility will become the norm. “Today, apps drive the
industry. This trend is here to stay,” he said, adding that systems companies would
now require semiconductor companies to deliver application-driven hardware-
software platforms.

DREAM CAREERS IN VLSI DESIGN

The density of transistors in a single chip will double every 18 months
predicted Intel founder Gordon Moore, a statement that is now famously referred
to as Moore's Law.

While the central processor has kept up with Moore's law, the graphics chip
has outpaced it drastically. Today billions of transistors sit on a tiny chip
attempting to render high-quality cinema-like visuals to users of handhelds,
HDTV's, PCs & gaming consoles.

The process of putting millions and billions of transistors together logically

on a tiny chip is known as VLSI or Very Large Scale Integration.

The industry has progressed in the last 35 years from SSI (Small) to MSI
(Medium) to LSI (Large) to its current stage of VLSI, where the technology is
advancing towards nanometer designs.
Big opportunity

VLSI design is a big opportunity for Indian engineers looking at contributing

to world-class `intellectual property' development. Students with a strong
electronics background and an engineering degree either in electronics, computer
science, electrical, IT, instrumentation etc. are eligible for a career in VLSI.

Students armed with either of these degrees, can then pursue a PG program
in VLSI engineering or microelectronics or a diploma in VLSI logic design,
physical design or embedded systems design. If electronics students are good in
programming with strong mathematical and analytical background, they will be
well suited to join embedded system design. Students with a similar background,
but with an interest in design and verification can opt for VLSI design. They can
either focus on logic design or verification (front-end) or physical design (back-
end).

Huge demand

VLSI designers are in huge demand to develop FPGA implementations,

ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) and SoCs (System-on-chip).

To decide on which VLSI course is most suitable, a student needs to

consider multiple factors. He needs to check out the institute offering the course
thoroughly. Some of the things he needs to consider are: alumni references, history
of the institute, involvement of the industry in the course, quality of lab
experiments, coverage of labs, extent of lab practice, complexity of live projects,
expert use of sign-off tools, work environment and hardware infrastructure,
academic excellence etc.

Some of the institutes a student will want to check out are IITs, industry and
university participated institutes like VEDA IIT, NITs and IIITs (for MS
programs) etc.

Starting salary

As a fresher/ASIC engineer trainee, the starting salary a B. Tech student can

expect would range from Rs. 15,000 to 25,000 a month. PG students could look
forward to Rs. 20,000 to 40,000 per month. Salaries keep pace with experience and
within three years, deserving VLSI professionals are known to earn INR 50,000 to
INR 1, 00,000 per month.
 VLSI design is an extremely challenging job. Since it is also a very creative
job, most people who don't want to get stuck in routine software jobs, opt for this
career. VLSI is also the fastest changing technology area and it constantly throws
up opportunities.

The most rewarding aspect of a career in VLSI design is, however, the sense
of ownership of what is developed. The ability of getting patents and the scope
available for applied research and publication make VLSI and ASIC design a
dream career for many engineers.

Dasaradha Gude

Managing Director, ATI Technologies Research & Development Centre