XMOS was recently featured in a video made by FutureStory
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“What we’re about is producing microprocessors for a new generation of electronic design. There’s a shift from a time when we designed a chip with a specific purpose for every individual function, to a world in which we’ll create a general purpose chip,” explains David. “It goes hand-in-hand with electronics becoming much more about fashion items. You can’t design a new chip for every new use; it’s too expensive and takes too long. So XMOS provides the general purpose product which can be customised by programming quickly and built into many different products.”
In four years, XMOS has grown to about 45 people and opened offices in California and India. “We’re a local company really; we’re rooted here and it’s a great place to be – but we have to be able to operate as a global company as well,” says David. “Like many of the companies in Bristol which do design, our manufacture is actually in Taiwan. The packaging and assembly goes on somewhere else; in Malaysia or Singapore. Meanwhile, our customers are anywhere on the planet that designs and builds electronic products, so particularly the West Coast of America, then Korea, Japan and China.”
One of the essential characteristics of the microelectronics design industry is the diversity of skills needed. In their Bristol office, XMOS does the design work, but even so they need people who understand the manufacturing process in detail. “We have people who do the physical level design, also people who do the logical design, people who build the tools, do the verification, build the website, design the applications, and people who do the finance and other management skills too. Bristol has one of the best concentrations of that diversity of talent that you’ll find outside the US, and in significant quantities because of all the different companies based here.”
With around 15,000 students right in the middle of the city, the University has a significant presence – and around a third of the people working at XMOS are ex-Bristol University students who’ve graduated in the last three or four years. “There’s a huge retention rate for students who come to the city to study and don’t leave – which is great because it’s important for a young company like us to be able to draw on that kind of talent pool.”
Consumers buying the electronic gadgets that the chips end up in are interested only in how easy they are to use, but behind the scenes it’s a complex business to produce them. It’s expensive and takes a long time to get to the first product. “The point is we’re putting millions of transistors down on a chip and they have to be absolutely right. It costs about $1 million dollars to do just one trial production run,” explains David. “Typically it takes a year or more to get to the first thing you can put into anybody’s hands for them to start building software and applications around. Plus you’ve got to identify the right customers for the technology and most of them are not here in the UK, so the network has to be built up. So it can be up to four years before you see any significant flow of money – and we’re more or less at that stage now.”
At a time when many people see global markets as a threat to British-based companies, David May has a different perspective, “We wouldn’t see India or China, or anywhere, as a threat. We see them as an opportunity. These are potentially huge emerging markets for exactly the kind of things we make. Do I think they could quickly replicate the kind of things we do? No. Over a 20 or 30 year period, they may well be able to, but you don’t grow this collection of expertise and culture overnight. Of course, there are lots of things that they can do very well and we’re currently in discussion with companies in India about them using our technology to do things with, to build applications on top of. But when you look at the scope for us now, it’s just an opportunity. It’s not a threat.”
One of the most exciting developments is the growing connection between what David calls the ‘artistic creative side’ and the ‘technological creative side’ of the industry. “Historically, there have been relatively few direct links but over the past few years the two have come much closer. Film production today relies heavily on computer technology – while computer games are famous for their high-quality graphics.
“Some years ago, I had this vision looking at the credits on computer games and animated films. They listed all the conventional film roles; continuity, set design… Then all the computer roles; animation, software design and the rest of it. I thought, ‘Why are these two different groups of people?’ So we started a Masters programme at the University to make it possible for people to study both in one course.”
David believes creating these hybrid opportunities is very important because it can produce more effective and imaginative results. “With companies like Apple the electronics creativity goes into making it possible to fit all the technology into a beautifully designed must-have product – and as soon as it’s out there on the street it demands content: you’re downloading iTunes, searching out new applications.
“This is clearly the future of the industry: the integration between the styling sense, the technology sense and the provision of the content. And Bristol has pretty much all the talents to do that stuff.”