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Expansion brings new R&D capabilities to Singapore
Hewlett-Packard (HP) is investing $55 million over the next three years to make Singapore the only hardware development centre for its worldwide ProCurve Networking Business.
The newly set up R&D centre, which designs, develops and tests ProCurve hardware products, will bring new R&D capabilities in networking hardware to Singapore, including the design of highspeed digital and analog circuits.
Singapore is also the only global manufacturing site for such products, and the R&D facility will lead to more of such products being manufactured here, including the latest switches featuring
Gigabit speeds.
The 10,000 sq ft R&D centre, located at the manufacturing site at Alexandra Road, will increase knowledge transfer to the production facility, improve the quality of product manufacturing, enhance
design process efficiencies, and speed time-to-market.
"HP's ProCurve investment clearly moves Singapore another step towards global leadership in data networking manufacturing," said Mr Teo Ming Kian, Chairman EDB.
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He described the R&D centre as significant because it was launched at "such a challenging time" and would transfer new and critical R&D skill sets to Singapore.
Mr Paul Chan, Managing Director of HP Asia-Pacific, said: "With this R&D investment, HP is bringing some of the most advanced networking technology skills to Singapore for the first time. This is a long term investment in Singapore's technology base and builds on our excellent track record in high quality manufacturing and our capabilities in doing development work out of Singapore."
Mr John McHugh, Vice President and General Manager of HP ProCurve Networking Business, revealed that the Singapore R&D centre would develop advanced products that integrate video, data and voice in single networks and extend wireless connectivity to all communications needs.
The R&D staff here will work closely with HP ProCurve's US R&D organisation, which designs software and application specific integrated circuits for ProCurve's range of switches, hubs and routers.
When fully operational, the R&D centre will have more than 50 electrical and mechanical engineers, who will work on high-end networking products, including Ethernet switches, routing switches and
wireless access devices. About 40 engineers will be recruited by the end of this year. Six Singapore-based engineers have been sent for training in California, four of them under EDB's Training and Attachment Programme.
Mr McHugh cited the advanced R&D skills, and the productivity and efficiency of the Singapore workforce as factors which made it "logical", "compelling" and "very easy" to set up the R&D centre in Singapore.
The HP ProCurve family of products, services and solutions helps customers to get the best returns on their information technology investments. It enables them to build networks based on open standards that meet current and future needs for security, performance and reliability.
The investment strengthens HP's long-standing partnership with Singapore over 33 years. HP has been moving steadily up the value chain and is now involved in the entire spectrum of manufacturing activities from conceptualisation, R&D, production, supply chain management to marketing. HP Singapore also has the world charter for several products, including Color InkJet printers.
One of the largest electronics manufacturers in Singapore, HP has invested about US$2 billion and employs more than 6,000 people. |
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