Derivative Design

Derivatives of a base platform help semiconductor companies address a wider market at incremental costs. Due to the episodic need for resources to successfully address derivative opportunities, often semiconductor companies have to do the tight ropewalk between conservative staffing, which could mean inability to address opportunities and more aggressive staffing, leading to fixed costs that are unutilized.

Along with the need for derivatives, the semiconductor company's core teams have to also focus on development of new generation platforms which is the key to sustainable competitive advantage. Hence, the core teams are divided between new and derivative chips which could often translate into lack of key expertise for derivatives or loss of focus on future platforms.

Wipro has the right solution to address this issue in the industry. We can play the role of your 'derivative engineering partner' by setting up an extended engineering team that handles all derivative developments in a domain.

• Establishing an offshore development center (ODC) at Wipro premises
• Well-tested process for inheritance of derivative engineering activities
• Clear separation of ownership and activities between customer and Wipro teams; clear definition/sign-off on inputs and outputs
• A 'core team' maintained at Wipro for the customer process which is to be trained on customer-specific design methodologies, tool flows and platform architectures
• Wipro ramps up and down additional 'flex team' for derivative programs based on number, scope and complexity of activities

• Enables customer to address a larger market through derivative chips cost-effectively
• Customer team can focus on core work, like developing the base architecture and design of the next generations - a more productive use of the core team
• Fixed cost of maintaining an internal team for the peak derivative load needs is replaced by variable cost of Wipro
  • Highly scalable Wipro team ('flex team' model) could support less or more number of derivatives based on market needs, less opportunities lost
  • Commercial model innovations possible for individual programs, including fixed price as well as sharing of risk and revenues.
• Core team ensure knowledge retention of the platform/process and avoids need for handholding of the flex team members by the customer
• Commitment on critical-to-success parameters (e.g. schedule, die size, etc)., continuous improvements, including flow optimizations, etc.
• Wipro's internal methodology for semiconductor design - EagleWision^TM - may be deployed to augment customer flows and fill gaps if any
• Established relations with semiconductor ecosystem helps provide support along the chain of derivative development
• Value-added offerings including documentation services, reference designs and mechanicals for demos, pre-certification, etc., to enable customers to address the market better