By DAVID TAN
Its president, CEO and chairman, John Daane, said the expenditure would be for software, servers, switches and test equipment.
“The amount is what we normally spend a year and would continue doing so despite the global market slowdown. We will also spend more than 20% of our revenue on research and development projects this year,” he told a press briefing yesterday after Altera introduced its latest 40-nanometre field programmable gate array (FPGA) chips, called the Strait IV GT and Arria II GX, which will replace the 65-nanometre FPGA chips.
Altera operates in research and development sites located in Britain, San Jose, Toronto and Penang.
The FPGA chips, which are configurable after manufacturing, are used in wireless and military telecommunications, high-end test equipment and consumer electronics products.
“The Penang plant will develop the chips in collaboration with the other three research and development sites,” he said.
Military communications, automotive and aerospace are among the growth sectors using FPGA chips.
Daane said the group was in a strong position to weather the economic crisis, as Altera currently had US$1.2bil of cash in hand.
“Our challenge ahead is to become even more efficient in the execution of our products, technologies and services for customers,” he said.
Last year, Altera generated US$360mil in net income on revenue of US$1.3bil.
Daane said Altera’s global market share for FPGA chips was currently 34%, while the market share for its complex programmable logic device (CPLD) was 36%.
Daane also attended the launching by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng of Altera’s RM100mil new research and development centre in the Bayan Lepas Industrial Estate.
Located next to the present facility, the centre has a built-up area of 225,000 sq ft and is capable of accommodating 600 engineers.
The Altera plant in Bayan Lepas has 914 employees, 94% of whom are engineers.
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