The SOPC World 2003 conference held here last week was another indicator that electronic design activity is on the rise in India. About 450 engineers attended the conference, and others had to be turned away.

In a country where hardware design has always been played second fiddle to software programming, the chip conference represented something of a milestone in Indian electronics. Most observers here agree that the early but growing focus on hardware design is a harbinger.

"'The quality of questions being asked during the presentations were very high, demonstrating good knowledge of hardware design using programmable logic devices. Customers brought in some very leading-edge actual designs to share," said Ben Lee, vice president, Asia Pacific, Altera (San Jose, Calif.).

The conference aimed to help engineers learn to implement embedded and digital signal processing, high-speed system design and various memory standards.

"Earlier, multinational companies outsourced only software to India; now hardware development is also happening here and so India is an important market for us," Lee said.

Altera has four Indian partners — Dexcel, Iwave, Spectrum Infotech and Deccanet — under its alliance program. It is talking to industry leaders like Wipro Technologies about possible collaboration.

Altera's Megacore Partners Program, which works with design houses to create intellectual property modules that can be used by Altera customers, will also be promoted by the company here.

"Last quarter, we doubled the number of new design wins. This is a good indication that India is on the way to hardware design," said Wai-Leng Cheong, Altera's regional sales manager for the South Asia Pacific region.

Last year, Altera set up an Indian subsidiary company here, Altera Semiconductor India Pvt. Ltd.