The five-day VLSI (very-large-scale integration) Design Conference 2023 being held in Hyderabad from January 8 to 12 themed "Semiconductors Driving Disruptive Innovations in Global Digitalisation," is designed to bring together key stakeholders, and was well represented by engineers, students and faculty, industry professionals, academia, researchers, bureaucrats, and government organisations.

Addressing the attendees at the inaugural session, Rajeev Chandrasekhar talked about the Future Design Program by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which invests $200 million in startups that design code, IP, tools, or devices for the next generation of applications in India.

He said, "To support this innovation ecosystem, the government will soon launch an IT Server and IT hardware PLI. The IT PLI will also offer additional incentives for manufacturers that incorporate Indian-designed IP into their products. Further, the government is also focused on Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) programme for next-generation Microprocessors to achieve commercial silicon & Design wins."

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He also added that the government is putting capital to work actively, catalysing the Indian semiconductor ecosystem and working with industry and the global diaspora to achieve India's ambition as a semiconductor nation at a torrid pace.

In his address, Dr Satya Gupta, the President of the VLSI Society of India highlighted the role of VLSI in developing and accelerating the pace of the sector in India and how it shaped the growth of startups. With scaling reaching its fundamental limits, he said it is time to look at addressing technological challenges at higher levels of abstraction in CMOS-based design and at the same time, look beyond Silicon for further performance enhancement.

The semiconductor industry is poised for monumental growth with the Government of India having earmarked $10 billion for India Semiconductor Mission, creating an environment that encourages growth to create a vibrant semiconductor ecosystem and steer India into the future.

The Ministers also highlighted Governments’ partnerships with the industry by reiterating commitment and a keen interest to work with the stakeholders to realise its efforts toward actualising new milestones.

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Following the inaugural, the industry leaders participated in keynote speeches and panel discussions, providing valuable insights and perspectives on the latest advancements, challenges, and trends in the field of VLSI and embedded technology.

Victor Peng, President of AMD, in his keynote discussed the importance of heterogeneous, high-performance, and adaptive computing in a digital world characterised by massive growth in data and the need to turn insights into intelligence using pervasive AI.

Assaf Touboul, VP of Technology at Qualcomm, provided an overview of key use cases being tackled by 5G and the role of semiconductors and AI/ML in improving the technology.

Dr. Prith Banerjee, CTO of Ansys, talked about the role of simulation in driving product innovation in the semiconductor and electronics industries. The conference also featured tracks on technical topics, user design, and industry forum talks focused on 5G.

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Purdue's Prof Koushik Roy spoke on "Rethinking Computing with Neuro-inspired Learning: Algorithms, Circuits, and Devices." Deep learning has helped computers match or surpass human performance in vision, voice, and NLP. Implementing neural algorithms in typical "von-Neumann" architectures is much more expensive than in the biological brain.

Venkat Mattela, CEO of Ceremorphic, discussed AI-era semiconductor challenges and prospects. AI and ML have spurred semiconductor growth as microprocessors did decades ago. This expansion has posed additional dependability, energy, and security problems. This session will examine its complexity and engineering prospects.

The "Startups Investor Connect" will be the key highlight of the conference on January 12, where emerging startups in the VLSI and the embedded sector will get an opportunity to pitch their ideas to leading investors. An award ceremony will be held to recognise the best startup at the conference.

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