Over the years, the philippines has served as a backend operation site for many semi-conductor companies has posted growth as microelectronics assembly center in the Asia Pacific-region. RP is regarded as a stable microelectronics assembly hub with the presence of several global technology companies such as Motorola, Fairchild, Intel, Texas Instrument and Amkor Technologies, among others. Working to its advantae are the country's abundance workforce, low labor costs and wide use of English language.

There are roughly 600-700 chip design engineers in the Philippines. Around 6-7 companies are engaged in IC design - Intel, Rohm (Japan), Canon, Lexmark, Sanyo, BitMicro and Tsukiden. The locals like EAZIX (AYALA IMI), Blue Chip (Ateneo) and Symphony are also going there. These chip design engineers were trained mostly in UP Diliman, though La Salle. Ateneo, San Carlos, St Louis, among others - are trying to develop their own chip design programs. Many of the large companies also trained their staff-in-house. The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) Adavanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) is also a source of chip designers. 

The University of the Philipines Electrical Engineering department has a chip design laboratory where students take turns on the workstation round the clock, and send their designs to a wafer fab in Taiwan for actual fabrication. Other local universities like De La Salle, Ateneo, USC and Mapua are also introducing chip design program for their electronic engineering departments.

True,the common perception is that Philippines is the place where silicon players do the back-end assembly and test. But another truth that emerged over the course of last five years is that a lot of design pockets have mushroomed around these back-end production hubs. And a number of silicon vendors have established low-key design houses for cost and competitive reasons. It could be worthwhile to dig into the level and scope of these activities and see where does Philippines actually stand in the electronics design value chain.

Indeed, though there is a lot of unreported design works in the Philippines, the country is still behind its neighboors. But at least we are seeing good movements. Noting that higher education and scientific innovations were the keys to riches for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Vietnam is courting foreign high-tech firms and inviting rich countries to set up universities and training facilities on its soil. An Australian university, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, has already opened state-of-the-art campuses in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Thus, a shift from assembly line to design in microelectronics through responsive education is the focus of joint programs by the DoST and UP Diliman.

I believe to make our local microelectronics education grow is to be able to produce a good number of engineers, to develop engineers with globally competitive skills in microelectronics and it will have to start in the classrooms. This is now the perfect time for our country to get the much-needed lift from assembly into design and development. The current administration has declared IT along with Communications as two of the three flagship industries that government would focus on, the other being tourism. The government therefore is to focus its attention now to improve the country's technical and human capabilities.

Meanwhile, BMI expects the Philippines to be one of the region's high growth IT markets over the next few years with annual spending increasing from US$1.46bn in 2007 to around $2.6bn in 2012. Export data from the Semiconductor Industry Association indicate that semiconductors export grew 6.8% to $1.55 billion in May, up from the $1.456 billion in sales registered during the same period last year. The country's export of semiconductor device in May also outpacedglobal sales that expanded by 4.1%. This growth was driven mainly by demand for personal computers and wireless handsets.

The potential for further growth is illustrated by the fact that only 23% of the Philippines more than 1mn small businesses have even a single computer in their businesses. BMI expects total 2008 hardware spending of around $841 mn , up from an estimated $752mn in 2007. Affordability remains a key criterion for PC purchase especially among call centre companies which are a major source of demand. Prices for branded PCs in the Philippines are now below $800 per unit. Much growth will of course come from increasing PC penetration, which is still less than 5% currently. However, even in the Southern Philippines consumers are now showing a greater appreciation of the enhanced features and legal software tht comes with branded computers.

Low price PC initiatives will play a role in driving growth. and in 2007 the CITC (Commission for Information and Communication Technology) launched a new PC4AII programme. The programme aims to increase the PC to user ratio by making available more affordable computers, through installation of open source software. The target price for the PC is around PHP10,000. In addition to the PC4AII programme, likely computer sale drivers over the forecast period include education, lower prices, IP telephony, cheaper processors and entertainment and wireless networking features.

Industry analysts state that one of the missing links in the Philippines electronics industry is integration. The country has technologically fragmented business units need to be consolidated to achieve greater buying power. That is, many buyers getting together to get the best prices.

fyi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvCrOMtCyFo&feature=related