Cadence Design Systems, a global leader in electronic design automation (EDA), has announced a major                move to establish a semiconductor design center in Wales, United Kingdom. The project is supported by the Compound Semiconductor Application (CSA) catapult Centre, with £2.5 million of funding from the Welsh government.

           The design centre, located in Cardiff, will provide specialist semiconductor design services to small           businesses and those in the stage of scaling up across the UK. In addition to funding from the Welsh  Government, Cadence also has its own input and is supported by the CSA Ejection Centre in Newport.

Over the next five years, the center is expected to create more than 100 new jobs for graduate students, and operations will be managed by the Catapult Center.

           In fact, this is not the first time Cadence has attempted to set up a semiconductor design center in the UK. In 1997, during the Internet semiconductor boom, Cadence set up an Alba center in Scotland, originally intended to recruit 1,800 designers, but the center was closed in 2005, reflecting the difficulties faced by talent recruitment at the time.

          The Welsh centre at Gate 7 in Cardiff is positioned as a joint venture that will combine Cadence's expertise in AI-driven IC design tools with the advanced facilities and testing capabilities of CSA's ejection Centre.

Research by the UK's Department of Science, Innovation and Technology shows that integrated circuit design engineers are now one of the areas where skills shortages are most acute. The new joint venture will focus on creating a culture of employee engagement that enables all parties to benefit from business success.