Cadence scales back Scottish jobs targetRichard BallCadence has admitted it will not reach its original target of 1,900 engineers at its Livingston design centre, limiting employment to a thousand designers by 2004.
The firm has so far attracted 250 chip designers to work in Livingston, a part of the Alba Centre. Like other chip design firms across the country, it has struggled to hire staff which are very much in short supply.
"When we first ventured into this we thought we could get even higher numbers," said Colin Adams, general manager of the Livingston centre. "We now think 1,000 is a realistic target."
Officially opened last week by the Queen, the centre has space for 500 engineers. The firm has the option of adding another building for a similar number of staff.
Cadence is hiring both experienced engineers and graduates. The latter, around 25 this year, come mainly from the Masters degree courses at Alba's own System Level Institute.
Meanwhile it has been suggested that Cadence may soon spin-off its design services business which includes the Livingston site.
Last year design services netted the firm £295m of its $1.1bn revenues, but is growing much faster than the firm's traditional EDA products.
At the opening of the Livingston site senior Cadence executives did not veto the idea, indicating a spin-off was possible.