Establishes a centre of excellence

Bangalore, July 25th, 2007 – Sun Microsystems India and RV-VLSI today announced an alliance where as part of its commitment to support advanced higher education in India, Sun Microsystems has collaborated with RV-VLSI to establish a first of its kind center of excellence in the country and support its initiative to promote advanced VLSI education in India and thus add to the workforce a steady stream of industry ready qualified engineers.

RV-VLSI Design Center is an innovative centre of excellence focused upon advanced VLSI training in India and is located in the SSMRV College and RV Institute Of Management Complex at 4th T Block, Jayanagar. This center of excellence spans approximately 8000 sqft and has a well equipped Sun grid data center with the latest in computing and storage technology, to cater to the design and simulation of advanced ASIC engineering activities of the center.

Engineers nationwide from Electrical and Electronics, Telecommunications, Information Science and Computer Science background can now pursue VLSI semiconductor design and research jobs through this center.

“We are delighted to support RV in the opening of a world-class VLSI lab facility in Bangalore," said Anil Valluri, Corporate Director, Services Practice, Sun Microsystems India. " Sun Microsystems has had long standing relationships with the academic community, as facilitators of one-to-many dissemination of knowledge and through this initiative we hope to contribute to the research development at RV.”

With India making significant strides in the semiconductor industry albeit with the overriding challenge of supply-and-demand gap for competent professionals, there is a need to synergise the initiatives of industry and academia so as to create a pool of VLSI proficient professionals who will further the success of India in the semiconductor industry. This initiative is a step in that direction,” he further added.

According to a recent report by the Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA), the Indian semiconductor design industry (i.e. VLSI, hardware/board, embedded software) had a turnover of US $3.2 billion in 2005 with an engineering workforce of around 75,000. It is estimated to reach US $43 billion by 2015 and provide jobs to 780,000 professionals with a CAGR of around 30 percent for this period

“Industry academia alliances are key to address the growing demand for industry ready VLSI professionals” said Mr. M. K. Panduranga Setty, President, Rashtreeya Shikshana Samithi Trust (RSST) and added “we are confident this strategic collaboration between SUN Microsystems and RV-VLSI will benefit both students and semiconductor industry”.

"This strategic relationship with Sun will enable the training of a new class of professionals", said Mr. A V S Murthy, Hon. Secretary, RSST, and added “Access to high end hardware solutions enables our students and researchers to experience first hand, the challenges faced in the semiconductor industry.”

“Access to Sun technology enables our students to design chips with varied complexities as part of the learning experience”, said Mr. Venkatesh Prasad, CEO, RV-VLSI Design Center and added “gaining design experience in an industry like atmosphere will significantly boost the confidence and employability factor of our students.”

Sun provides Education and Research institutions with best of breed products, services and support designed and developed specifically for their needs, be it knowledge or information management, business solutions or even tools and technologies for research and development.

About Sun
A singular vision -- “The Network Is The Computer(TM)” -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

About RV-VLSI Design Center
Rashtreeya Shikshana Samithi Trust (RSST) established in 1940, the name behind the reputed RV Group of Institutions, one of the foremost providers of quality education in the state of Karnataka, India, manages 24 educational institutions, and has taken the initiative to establish the RV-VLSI Design Center in Jayanagar, Bangalore. The primary mission of this center is to impart industry centric advanced programs in VLSI to the vast available talent pool in India, creating a steady stream of professionals who are qualified to join the workforce as effective design team members in semiconductor industries. The center is equipped with the latest in computing technology and EDA software and provides 24x7 access to the design laboratories to facilitate a flexible learning schedule.
For more information please visit: www.rv-vlsi.com
or call 011-9180-40-RV-VLSI (011-9180-40-78-8574)