India's Wipro expands IC-design services by striking foundry deal with UMC

India's Wipro expands IC-design services by striking foundry deal with UMC
By Semiconductor Business News
January 22, 2002 (8:05 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020122S0052

BANGALORE, India -- India's Wipro Ltd. here today moved to expand its IC-design service offerings, announcing a deal with Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp.

Under the terms, Wipro will offer its IC-design customers with "easy access" to UMC's silicon foundry services, according to the Bangalore-based company. Wipro is the largest information technology (IT) provider in India.

The deal will give Wipro a "one-stop shop" of chip services. Wipro's IC arm, Wipro Technologies, specializes in the development of ASIC and system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs. Its customers include Alcatel, Cisco, Hitachi, Intel, Sony, and Texas Instruments.

"Wipro focuses on realizing products for our customers in embedded, Internet, and telecom areas," said M. Divakaran, CEO of the Embedded and Internet Access Division at Wipro Technologies. "This alignment with UMC enables us toprovide turnkey ASIC/SoC solutions. With this agreement, customers can look to Wipro as a one-stop shop for their complete product development," he said.