Renesas Technology is going to substantially increase the number
of engineers it employs in R&D in China and Vietnam.
“We are very aggressively increasing then number of engineers we
have in China," Satoru Ito, chief executive officer of Renesas,
told Electronics Weekly at Electronica.
"We currently have 300 engineers there and we plan to increase
that to 500 to 600 by 2008. In Vietnam, we have 100 engineers and
intend to increase that to 500 by 2008.”
Asked why Renesas went to Vietnam, Ito replied: “I thought China
would be the key area later it seems that China is not going to be
a very cost-effective region and I thought we needed another area
which would be cost-effective for a longer time."
In China, the Renesas R&D team focuses on microcontroller
product design. The main reason for being there is to tailor
product to the local market applications. “To make good inroads
into China we need lower-end product," said Ito.
In the Vietnam R&D centre, the focus is on SOC design for
the worldwide market. “A lot of engineering work is required, for
instance in SOC," said Ito.
The Vietnam experience has been very positive for Renesas. “We
were the first semiconductor company to establish an R&D centre
in Vietnam so we had the luxury of having the pick of the best
engineers," said Ito.