BUSINESS
Actel launches Dublin research centre
20-03-2006
by Ciara O'Brien
US chip company Actel has announced its plans for a European processor development centre in Dublin.
The project, supported by IDA Ireland, has been billed as "an important extension to the company's global research and development efforts", and has been welcomed by the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment, Michael Martin.
However, it is still unclear how many jobs will be created as a result of the new centre.
According to the company, the development centre will help develop new processor and processor-related technologies to support the company's Programmable System Chip (PSC) strategy. California-based Actel produces single-chip field-programmable gate array solutions.
Commenting on the plans for the new centre, the minister described it as a "welcome addition" to Ireland's circuit industry. "It is an ideal fit with the initiatives of the Government and IDA Ireland to attract strategic R&D investments from international companies like Actel who are leaders in their business."
The news of the new centre comes as a relief to the industry, which is already facing the loss of 350 jobs following the recently announced decision to close the Meath NEC semiconductor plant.
And it seems that Ireland's push towards creating a knowledge economy is starting to pay off.
"The availability of designers with in-depth intellectual property (IP) and microprocessor (MPU) experience made Dublin an appropriate choice for Actel's European Processor R&D Centre," said Fares Mubarak, senior vice president, Engineering, Actel.
As an increasing number of manufacturing jobs are lost to lower-cost economies, government agencies have been trying to establish Ireland as a knowledge economy.
Earlier this year, a survey warned that Ireland was only average in terms of innovation. The European Innovation Scoreboard ranked Ireland as only 11th out of 25 EU countries, rating is as "average performance".
The survey highlighted that business R&D had showed a marked decline over time, falling from 0.90 percent of GDP in 1998 to 0.77 percent in 2004.
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