Intel Malaysia and Multimedia Development Corporation to Drive Digital Malaysia’s ‘Grow the Embedded Systems Industry’ Project

Strategic partnership will enable the Malaysian Embedded Systems Industry to tap global growth opportunity estimated at US$75B by 2020

• Intel Malaysia has been appointed by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) as technical advisor for the "Grow the Embedded Systems Industry" Project, one of eight key Digital Malaysia projects.
• The strategic partnership aims to build on Malaysia’s existing strengths in the electrical and electronics (E&E) industry to develop a conducive ecosystem for the embedded systems industry in Malaysia.

KUALA LUMPUR, 26 Dec., 2012 – Intel Malaysia has been appointed by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) as technical advisor for the ‘Grow the Embedded Systems Industry’ Project (Embedded Project), one of eight projects identified for the first wave of the Digital Malaysia program. This appointment marks yet another significant milestone as the Government continues its push to advance the country towards a developed digital economy by 2020.

Commenting on the appointment, Country Manager, Sales and Marketing, Prakash Mallya said “We are delighted to have been selected as a technical advisor to Digital Malaysia and committed towards supporting the local embedded systems industry. Malaysia is well placed to nurture local enterprises to become national and regional embedded systems suppliers as we already have the requisite skillset in embedded systems and local enterprises with the capacity to capitalize on existing opportunities in this market.”

 (Left) Prakash Mally, Country Manager Sales and Marketing, Intel Malaysia and Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO, Multimedia Development Corporation at the announcement of Intel Malaysia’s appointment for Digital Malaysia’s ‘Grow the Embedded Systems Industry’ Project (Embedded Project).

Embedded systems are intelligent solutions with tightly coupled hardware and software integration designed to perform a dedicated function. These systems are currently represented in over 80 segments including wireless infrastructure, enterprise storage, in-vehicle infotainment and factory automation. Intel predicts that over 15 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2015 and that one third of these connected devices will be embedded systems. Globally, the market for embedded systems is estimated to grow at 6% to US$75B by 2020 .

 “There is a huge opportunity that remains untapped in the embedded systems industry, which presents a new source of growth for the country by leveraging on Malaysia’s established E&E ecosystem and skilled local enterprises. We are excited to have Intel on board as our technical advisor to drive this industry alongside other industry partners to position Malaysia at the forefront of the global embedded systems industry” said Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, CEO, MDeC.

The Digital Malaysia Embedded Project intends to take measures to capture a larger portion of the global embedded systems market by developing local capabilities. These will include efforts to identify embedded systems pilot projects for funding and training, partnering in the development of reference designs, capacity building for research and development (R&D) in embedded systems and the development of a more complete end to end industry ecosystem that can better support the promotion of locally driven innovations on embedded systems.

Intel Malaysia is well-positioned to guide local businesses in developing intelligent systems based on embedded technologies. The company established an Intelligence Architecture Group (IAG) at its operations in Penang in 1992 and currently hosts several hundred engineers involved in embedded-specific product design and development, as well as platform solutions development.

 “The IAG in Intel Penang has been leading the pack in embedded systems innovations and we are very excited at the prospect of working with local developers and sharing our knowledge and expertise in this area.” said Christopher Kelly, Director of IAG.

Prakash further explains that Malaysia is strategically set to participate in five targeted embedded systems market segments: point of sale systems, digital signage, digital surveillance, home energy management and connected set top boxes.

“So far, several Malaysian enterprises have made noteworthy progress in these market segments.” he said. “We have seen the successful adoption of locally developed innovations both domestically and abroad. These products include handheld passport readers, digital security surveillance and point-of-sale digital signage. We are definitely keen on embarking on this journey with MDeC in carving out this valuable niche in the embedded systems market by leveraging on the local talent available.”