Tenasic Technology, and Channel Microsystems have joined as the second batch of incubatees at the Penang Silicon Research and Incubation Space in Bayan Lepas, bringing the total number of participants to seven.

“Both companies will receive the same level of support as the inaugural batch, including operating subsidies for rental, utilities, multi-project wafer services, testing, and talent development,” Chow said at a press conference in Komtar today.

He also highlighted the progress of SiliconX, one of the initiative’s inaugural incubatees, which has successfully developed and powered on its proprietary field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip.

Chow said innovators like SiliconX help realise the state’s aspiration to create the first generation of “Made by Malaysia” chips designed and developed in Penang.

“This marks a historic first for both Malaysia and Southeast Asia, positioning SiliconX as the region’s first FPGA product company,” he said.

He said such milestones demonstrate that with the right platform and support, Penang can create homegrown semiconductor products of global significance.

The PSD@5km+ initiative is anchored by three key components – the Penang IC Design and Digital Park, the Penang Chip Design Academy, and the Penang Silicon Research and Incubation Space – to strengthen upstream chip design and talent development within the local semiconductor ecosystem.

Tenasic Technology specialises in developing custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), system-on-chip solutions, intellectual property, and embedded software.

Channel Microsystems develops high-efficiency radio frequency-to-direct current (RF-to-DC) energy harvesters based on low-cost complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology.