UAE attractive for chip designing: AMD

Chip manufacturer AMD's global Chief Executive Officer Dirk Meyer sees potential in designing chips in the UAE on the lines of chip design centres in emerging countries such as India and China.

Speaking to Emirates Business during his trip to Abu Dhabi to attend the Ettihad Grand Prix, Meyer said: "We have chip design centres around the world, including in India and China, and the capabilities by Dubai Silicon Oasis present interesting future opportunities. In time we will (design chips in the UAE), and it's hard to be specific on the time frame. There is a definite opportunity in such a partnership."

He said AMD will continue to focus its efforts to build a fabrication plant in the future in Abu Dhabi. In the UAE, Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSOA) is an integrated technology park for the microelectronics and the semi-conductor industry.

Dubai Circuit Design, 100 per cent owned by DSOA and specialists in chip design, has been designing chips for companies like Atmel, which specialises in the designing and manufacturing of microcontrollers for the electronics industry.

The other two are Synopsis, an electronic design automation supplier to the global electronics market, and Movidius, a fabless semiconductor company specialising in mobile social networking.

Dubai Silicon Oasis also has aggressive plans for circuit designing operation in Dubai, as it has engineering talent across the globe, said Ray Milhem CTO at DSOA, who has played an active role at R&D centres for other technology companies.

Milhem told Emirates Business that he saw immense potential in the engineers in designing chips and DSOA was in discussions with global technology giants including AMD.

On the investment front for AMD, it does not plan to follow counterparts like Intel or even Yahoo and make acquisitions or provide VC funding, Meyer said.

"The top priority for AMD is to deepen our partnership with ATIC and Global Foundries, which continues to expand its partner pool to make sure that infrastructure in Abu Dhabi gets ready for a fabrication plant in the future. As a company, we will want to participate fully in the market through our sales and marketing team and make sure people are IT savvy. Acquisitions are not on the agenda presently but could be a possibility over a period of time," he said.

"Given the vision Abu Dhabi has, it will become an important part of the region. Human infrastructure has to be increased and people's involvement in technology is essential. An IT and engineering savvy population is integral to make it self-sufficient," said Meyer.

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