India’s own microprocessor is just months away: Expert

India’s own microprocessor is just months away: Expert
New Delhi: India is on the cusp of releasing its own microprocessors – called chips in electronic industry parlance — in the next few months. Prof V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said, “We are on the cusp of releasing chips that can suit many applications.” It will happen in the next few months, if not a year, he said, adding, “Time is not far that we will have our own advanced microprocessor.”

He was speaking in Chennai at the day-long symposium on ‘Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V)’ programme on Sunday.

It is for the next generation microprocessors to achieve commercial silicon and design. RISC-V stands for ‘Reduced instruction set computer -Vth generation’.

Kamakoti is also the chief architect of the programme. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is also a partner. The DIR-V Programme is for making the SHAKTI Processor by IIT Madras and VEGA Processor by C-DAC.

It is expected to boost the semiconductor ecosystem in the country.

At the same symposium, the Minister of State of Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, addressing the symposium online, said: “Future is bright, future is DIR-V that is an important component of India’s technology policy framework and vision for the future.”

The government is committed to making DIR-V the Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) for Indian computing systems. The ISA acts as an interface between the hardware and the software, specifying what the processor is capable of doing as well as how it gets done.

“Innovation, functionality and performance will be the mantras for the DIR-V programme,” the minister added.

The DIR-V program is aimed at making a serious presence in automotive and high-performance computing.

The Indian government has signed MoUs with Sony India, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Department of Atomic Energy, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT). These agencies will use the Shakti and Vega chips once they are ready.