22-Sep-2008 Bangalore, INDIA: Cosmic Circuits, a leading provider of analog and mixed-signal IP cores, today launched an analog design contest named “Nebula”. The contest is intended to promote interest in analog chip design among under-graduate, graduate and doctoral students, and is currently open to Indian universities

While Indian universities produce a large number of VLSI engineers, the number of engineers specializing in analog chip design is still quite small. Today’s “digital world” is requiring significant analog design skills to interface chips to the real world. The recent explosion of portable gadgets, wireless communication devices and consumer applications has only increased the analog content in semiconductor chips. There is a global shortage of analog engineers that presents itself as an opportunity to those interested and talented in this space. It is in this context that attempts such as the “Nebula” design contest in creating interest become relevant.

“Analog design is known to involve deep analytical skills and few engineers take to it, while there are huge opportunities for engineers in this space”, said C. Srinivasan, Vice-President of engineering at Cosmic Circuits. “The semiconductor technology at nanometer geometries makes analog design complex and interesting. For example, techniques that exploit the digital-speed at these geometries and designs that consume low-power and work off a low power-supply voltage can be interesting opportunities. This inflexion into nanometer technologies requires a high degree of innovation in analog, be it power-regulators or data-converters, performance audio or high-speed interfaces”.

Commenting on the structure of the contest, “There are three stages to the contest that gets progressively tough and filters participants at each stage” explained Dr. Sundararajan Krishnan, the champion behind the event. “The contest kicks off with the ‘Planetary Stage’, a challenging one-hour online quiz on the fundamentals of analog design. This is followed by the ‘Emission Stage’ where the contestant’s ability to use the fundamental principles to solve real-world problems will be tested. The contest culminates in the ‘Stellar Nursery’, a one-day event that will be held at the Cosmic Circuits headquarters in Bangalore where the contestants will present their design ideas“.
More details of the contest can be accessed here (http://www.cosmiccircuits.com/university/nebula08) . Interested students are invited to apply on-line. Email enquiries are received at nebula@cosmiccircuits.com

About Cosmic Circuits:
Cosmic Circuits is a leading provider of differentiated Analog and Mixed-Signal silicon IP. With a single-minded focus on Analog, a large team of expert analog designers, and a strong focus on analog architectures for the nanometer era, we provide best-in-class solutions in all the participating technology areas, aptly suited to the world of convergence electronics. The company’s mission is one of ensuring ‘Customer success through Quality and Differentiation” of its IP blocks. More information about Cosmic Circuits can be found at www.cosmiccircuits.com.
 
Contact :
Krishnan Ramabadran
ip@cosmiccircuits.com