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FAQ's
What is the Alba Centre?
Why was the Alba Centre set up?
What are the objectives of The Alba Centre?
Why is the Alba Centre located in Scotland?
Which companies have joined the Alba Centre to
date?
What type of companies does the Alba Centre wish to attract?
What is available on the Alba Campus?
How many people will the Campus employ?
What type of skills will be in demand on the campus?
What additional aims are there for the Alba Centre beyond the VCX and
ISLI development?
What is the Alba
Centre?
The Alba Centre is an initiative
which is developing the electronic design industry in Scotland. Scottish
Enterprise is the economic development agency for Scotland and has provided
all the initial funding for the project. The elements that make up this
initiative are:
The Alba Centre is the keystone of a much
wider ranging structural network of initiatives being undertaken by
Scottish Enterprise, with support from Scotland's local enterprise companies.
It is a unique collaboration of government, industry and academia which
is helping to place Scotland at the forefront of the electronics design
industry. [Top]
Why was the Alba
Centre set-up?
The electronics industry is facing a new challenge in System Level
Integration or System on Chip. The need to develop a consistent and
repeatable SLI design capability is paramount.
What is required is a dedicated infrastructure that can support the
development of the global electronics industry, providing a structured
market for IP trading and an institute focused on SLI.
These are all realised in the Alba Centre. This ground-breaking initiative
offers a business environment that has the capability to support secure
and efficient system level integration (SLI) with access to the right
skills, methods, and tools, support services and virtual components.
[Top]
What are the
objectives of the Alba Centre?
The Alba Centre's primary task is to work with companies to assist them
with the move towards system level integration (SLI), the design of
integrated circuits that contain entire systems, and System on Chip
design. Its objectives include:
- Increasing the design and product development
capacity of existing firms
- Attracting new investment in semiconductor
research, design and development
- Increasing the supply of design engineering
talent and skills
- Enhancing the research and teaching
capability of Scottish academic institutions
- Developing Scotland as a major contender
in the world trade of intellectual properties. [Top]
Why is the Alba
Centre located in Scotland?
Scotland has a proud heritage of pioneering excellence in the electronics
industry. The extensive electronic design community in Scotland includes
companies such as Motorola, Tality Corporation, Atmel, Intel, Agilent
Technologies, National Semiconductor and Epson. The country is served
by a powerful educational infrastructure, with many renowned centres
of excellence, such as the Scottish Microelectronics Centre, National
Microelectronics Institute and the Scottish Advanced Manufacturing Centre.
In addition, Scotland produces one of Europe's highest per capita outputs
of graduates, especially in the fields of electronic engineering and
computer science. Through the creation of the Alba Centre, Scotland
has demonstrated her commitment to contributing to the development of
the global electronics industry. [Top]
Which companies
have joined The Alba Centre to date?
The Alba Centre and the associated Alba Campus have been designed to
provide the ideal environment for design activities, offering a broad
range of property for both large and small companies in Livingston,
the heart of Scotland’s Silicon Glen. The first occupier of the Alba
Campus was Tality Corporation of California who will eventually employ
up to 1000 design engineers. The Livingston facility will be the world's
largest SoC design centre. In September 2000 Motorola announced a £20
million centre, which will form part of the Alba Campus in Livingston
and focus on embedded software and its partnering with system on chip
(SoC). Epson, SESC, Virtio, Spektra and Test Advantage have set up their
design operations on the Alba Campus incubator facilities. [Top]
What
type of companies does the Alba Centre wish to attract?
Companies working in the following areas will find The Alba Centre's
range of facilities ideal for high quality research and design activities:
- IP providers
- System houses
- Design service providers
- Fabless semiconductor companies
- Electronic design automation companies
(EDA)
- Vertical semiconductor companies
- Embedded software companies.
[Top]
What is available
on the Alba Campus?
The campus, currently being developed on a 96-acre site in Livingston,
provides a number of attractive property options to incoming companies.
They range from multiple occupancy buildings providing small scale accommodation
(100 m2 upwards) to property custom-built to an individual company's
requirements.
Additionally, support services will be
provided on campus including incubator units, business services, and
leisure and recreation facilities. The aim is to make it as quick and
easy as possible for companies to establish design operations.
Incubator units are provided within the
Alba Centre building in units of 100 m2 upwards. [Top]
How many people
will the Campus employ?
It is anticipated that over 4,000 people will be employed once the
Alba Campus is at full capacity. [Top]
What type of skills
will be in demand on the campus?
- Analog and mixed signal IC design
- Physical design verification
- Systems architecture
- Front end digital design
- Embedded software design
- Integration and verification engineering
- EDA software development
[Top]
What additional aims
are there for the Alba Centre beyond the VCX and ISLI development?
The Alba Centre is constantly striving to understand and tackle the
problems facing industry in the implementation of SoC. Other Alba initiatives
include talentscotland.com
programme which is raising awareness of Scotland as a location with
excellent long term career opportunities in the electronics design industry,
as well as an outstanding quality of life.
The Alba Associate programme has also been
developed and offers the ability to communicate and network with like-minded
companies and people on an international basis, involvement with the
some of the most exciting developments in electronic design, privileged
access to seminars, information and early knowledge of breaking news
at The Alba Centre.
The Alba Centre is also setting up links
with other key players in the knowledge-based industry:
- Encouraging new start company development
- Developing home grown companies
- Continuing beneficial relationships
with existing multinational companies in Scotland.
- Promoting the range of job opportunities
now available in Scotland.
[Top]
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