Tirupati : SmartDV propels Chittoor as major research hub

Tirupati : Chittoor district is going to emerge as a major research hub as industries like SmartDV Technologies, the world's largest IP products manufacturer, is going to set up their units here.

The Smart DV unit, coming up at a tiny village Kothapalli Mitta of S R Puram mandal in Chittoor district with an estimated investment of about Rs 100 crore, will focus more on R&D and will provide jobs for 10,000 engineers in the next few years. An MoU was signed with AP government on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Founded by Deepak Kumar Tala, Durga Lakshmi Tala and Kavitha Tala as a proprietorship company in 2007 at Bengaluru, Smart DV's main focus is on semiconductor IPs. Basically it develops new technologies and exports/licenses to companies like Apple, Google, Intel, Sony, Broadcom and Qualcomm. Smart DV products are used in automotive, communication, space, avionics and all places where there are electronics and has world's largest IP products.

It got into design IPs with 3 or 4 engineers and now has over 250 well-experienced design and verification engineers functioning from Bengaluru. The promoters did not stop here. They had a larger dream. The company expanded its presence outside the country and opened its offices in the US, China, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Taiwan among others. Deepak Kumar Tala, Chairman of the Smart DV Group of Companies, told The Hans India that when they had decided to expand its business, they considered several places like Bengaluru, Mysuru, Madurai, Warangal, etc, but found that their native Chittoor district was the most ideal place both in terms of locational advantage and because of the love they have for their native district.

He said, "Though our core R&D is in Bengaluru, we believe that in the long run the AP unit will emerge as the core R&D and most of the basic products that would come in future will be from this particular location only. He said that in the whole semiconductor IP market, till now we are doing digital IPs and now we want to go in for analog IPs. The Chittoor unit will be focusing on it, he added.