Business

Monday March 2, 2009

Altera to allow Penang plant run whole product flow


ALTERA Corp hopes its Penang plant will plan, design and manufacture its own chip product.

Penang vice-president of operations and managing director Chris Oh said one of the aims was for Penang to own the whole product flow for a device.

“This means the Penang team will start from product architecture, product planning, circuit design to rollout,” he told StarBiz.

“This is to allow Penang to own a product from definition to manufacturing in its entirety independently.”

Altera's new RM100mil design centre in Bayan Lepas Industrial Estate

To this end, Altera last year teamed up with Multimedia Development Corp to establish very large-scale integration (VLSI) design laboratories in 16 institutes of higher learning, which were equipped with development tools and reference books sponsored by Altera.

“We estimate that the 100 trained faculty members at the institutes would be able to help train 1,500 to 1,700 undergraduates per year using the tools and the curriculum provided,” Oh added.

Seagate Technology, meanwhile, does not have any collaboration programmes with local tertiary educational institutions, as the technology in the hard disk drive industry is very specific and advanced.

“All our technology is leading edge and training is done in-house. We hold many in-house training sessions regularly to keep our engineers and operators well informed of the most current technology and new processes in the factory,” Penang Seagate Industries (M) Sdn Bhd vice-president Oh Kean Cheong said.

He said for technology transfers, his engineers were sent abroad for training on the latest technology as well as processes.

On the other hand, Intel Corp grooms the next generation of engineers and scientists in the country through its Intel Higher Education Programme.

“In Malaysia, Intel collaborates with Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Multimedia University, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara and Politeknik Ungku Omar to expand university curricula, engage in focused research, encourage students to pursue advanced technical degrees, and build local innovation capacity,” Intel Malaysia managing director Atul Bhargava said.

“Last year, Intel Malaysia awarded more than RM834,000 worth of research and fellowship grants to its partner universities,” he added.

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