EPSON Officially Opens Semiconductor Design Centre in Scotland
10 May 2001   

EPSON Officially Opens Semiconductor Design Centre in Scotland for Cutting-Edge DSP Firmware Development

Seiko Epson Corp. today (10 May 2001) officially opened its new Epson Scotland Design Centre "ESDC" on the Alba Campus. Guests from Japan and Scotland gathered to celebrate with a traditional kagami-biraki ceremony.

In the market for mobile information terminals, such as portable audio equipment and personal digital assistants, the product cycle is becoming shorter and the number of additional features are growing, so that manufacturers face increasing pressure in their product development. As a result, semiconductor vendors are being called upon to supply not only ICs but also firmware and software. A noticeable trend is for a division of labor in which mobile equipment makers develop application firmware and software while semiconductor vendors develop firmware and software that conform to global standards.

To respond to the changing market, EPSON has established ESDC as a branch of Epson Europe Electronics GmbH, an EPSON affiliate. It will serve as a cutting-edge design center for the development of DSP (digital signal processing) firmware and for supporting firmware development by clients.

EPSON chose Scotland as the location for a cutting-edge DSP firmware development centre for the following reasons:
1. Availability of experienced DSP engineers
DSP engineers are in short supply across the world, and acquiring experienced engineers in the field is extremely difficult. Scotland is home to such universities as Edinburgh University and Strathclyde University, both of which are renowned for the development of algorithms, and the Institute for System Level Integration, which offers the world’s first masters-level program in system level integration. In Scotland, therefore, EPSON will be able to employ excellent talent, including outstanding graduates of universities like the above.
2. Government support
Through the Alba Centre initiative, which is being promoted by the government of Scotland, EPSON can receive overall support for employment, industry-university cooperation, and infrastructure development.

Based on the energy-saving concept that lies at the heart of EPSON’s electronic devices and components business, ESDC will work on developing cutting-edge DSP firmware that realizes low power consumption. The main target applications will be speech and audio applications to be used on mobile information terminals equipped with wireless interfaces.

Note: The firmware is a mixture of hardware and software. One of the most important technologies for the firmware development is a ‘partitioning’ between hardware and software to optimise performance and to lower the power consumption. The firmware is implemented into an LSI for a wide variety of applications including portable audio equipment and personal digital assistants.

For more information, please contact:
Public Affairs Department, Seiko Epson Corp.
Tel. +81-3-3340-2637 (Tokyo Office)
+81-266-58-1705 (Suwa Office)

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