Bangalore: US-based Synfora Inc today "(Dec 10, 2004) announced the setting of an R & D centre in Bangalore to take advantage of local talent and software skills in product development.

The company, founded in January last year from HP Labs, expects 70 per cent product development to take place here in the next five years, its CEO Simon Napper told a news conference in Bangalore.

Synfora is the developer of PICO (Program in Chip Out) Express, being promoted as the "first true algorithm-to-tape out synthesis technology which enables software designers to significantly reduce time to market and cost of development in the areas of digital video, digital audio, digital imaging and WLL, telecom and security".

While PICO Express, the company's first product, was shipped in February this year, Napper said the second product would be released in 2005.

Synfora received Series B funding of $ 10 million in August, he added.

Napper also spoke about difficulties in hiring software engineers in Bangalore, saying they are in great demand. In 10-15 years, Bangalore would be something similar to what Silicon Valley in the US is today, he expressed.

According to him, the cost advantage that India presently offered is going to go away in future, with cost of employees going up, making Indian companies to think about opening development centre overseas.

India and China are going to be "predominant force" in the next ten years, sidelining the US and Europe who would be saddled with an ageing population, Napper said.