Xilinx
Scotland managing director Colin Carruthers
reflects on the benefits of being located in the Inspiring Capital.
Xilinx,
the world’s leading supplier of ‘programmable logic’, recently
announced record revenues. The 
company is
based in Silicon Valley,
but its research and development hothouse is here, at Edinburgh Technopole.
Edinburgh is a great place to attract
thinkers. In that respect, you could argue that little has changed
since the Enlightenment,
when the city's coffee houses were filled with pioneers breaking
new ground.
For Xilinx
Scotland, our thinkers are highly skilled engineers developing
solutions for next generation programmable logic devices. These are
generic computer chips which can be customised by product
manufacturers across a range of industries to perform specific
functions.
From Silicon Valley to Silicon Glen
Our team at Edinburgh Technopole is
part of Xilinx's's Intellectual Property Solutions operation and
holds 40 patents. That's roughly one per head.
Being in Edinburgh is key to our success
in attracting and retaining talent. Our developers and engineers
come from various renowned academic institutions across Scotland,
including Edinburgh. We also have a good track record in attracting
international talent from Europe, Russia, Canada, India and
Australia.
Edinburgh's culture, natural environment and access to sport and
leisure activities are all big pulls.
Fuelling the Chinese dragon
For our parent company, access to world-class talent is what
drives performance. Xilinx has just posted record quarterly
revenues of $513.3m, up 24% on the last quarter and 12% on a year
ago. Mushrooming demand from markets like China is fuelling
demand.
Much of that intellectual property is developed here, in
Edinburgh. For our team at Xilinx Scotland, it
means a growing pipeline of specialised intellectual property
developments that will keep us innovating for many years to
come.
