GEORGE TOWN, July 10 — Penang today officially opened its chip design academy (PCDA) to train 1,000 engineers specialising in integrated circuit (IC) design in the next five years.

Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow said the academy will provide hands-on, industry-driven courses in physical design, verification, layout and analog design.

"PCDA directly addresses what the industry needs today and tomorrow,” he said in his speech at the official opening ceremony of PCDA Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) here today.

He said PCDA will have trainers who are industry veterans with two decades of global experience to train the students who will consist of fresh graduates and existing engineers.

The first batch of 25 trainees have already started the intensive four to nine-week IC Design Mastery Courses from June 16.

Chow said the PCDA is a key milestone in the state’s mission to build a strong, sustainable and AI-ready talent pipeline under the Penang Silicon Design @5KM+ initiative.

"Just last week, we launched the Penang Silicon Research and Incubation Space so today’s launch, along with the IC Design and Digital Park, strengthens our integrated design ecosystem within a 5KM+ radius right here in Bayan Lepas,” he said.

Hey said this is how the state can move towards its goal of designing and developing "Made in Malaysia” chips that are driven by Penang talent.

He said there is a growing confidence in Penang’s talents and their capabilities as the Penang IC Design and Digital Park that was launched last year now has double the number of companies from 20 to more than 45.

He said the state is building the ecosystem for IC Design and talent is one of the big issues that foreign investors consider.

"With talent ready for them to start operations is another plus factor to attract FDI,” he said.

InvestPenang chief executive officer Datuk Loo Lee Lian said the Penang Silicon Design @5KM+ initiative is to encourage local companies to venture into manufacturing and producing chips made in Penang.

"We are not only looking at attracting FDIs but also looking at domestic investors, we are looking at more local champions to design, manufacture and produce Malaysian-made chips,” she said.

The PCDA’s training modules cover high-speed interconnects such as Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCle) and Compute Express Link (CXL), as well as key memory technologies including Double Data Rate (DDR) and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM).

PSDC chief executive officer Harry Narayanan said the aim is to train about 200 students a year, to achieve about 1,000 students in five years.