IIT Madras develops indigenous Shakti semiconductor chip for ISRO-OxBig News Network

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. File
| Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and the Indian Space Research Organisation have developed an indigenous aerospace quality Shakti-based semiconductor chip.

IIT Madras director V. Kamakoti led the Shakti microprocessor project at Prathap Subrahmanyam Centre for Digital Intelligence and Secure Hardware Architecture (PSCDISHA) in the institute’s Computer Science and Engineering department. 

The Shakti class of systems are based on RISC-V (reduced instruction set computing), an open-source instruction set architecture for designing custom processors. Shakti is backed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, under its Digital India RISC-V initiative (DIRV). It aims to promote indigenous development of microprocessor-based products that offer best-in-class security and visibility for users adopting RISC-V technology.  

The indigenous RISC-V controller for space applications chip was developed from the Shakti processor baseline. It can be used in diverse domains from IoT and computer systems for strategic needs. The development is part of the effort to indigenise semiconductors used by the ISRO for its applications, command and control systems, and other critical functions aligning with its march towards self-reliance in space technologies. 

ISRO inertial systems unit (IISU) in Thiruvananthapuram proposed the idea of a 64bit RISC-V based controller and collaborated with IIT Madras to define the specifications and design of the semiconductor chip. 

The effort is important as the semiconductor was entirely done in India. It was conceived by IISU, designed and implemented by IIT Madras, manufactured in Chandīgarh, packaged at Perjenahalli, Karnataka; the motherboard printed circuit board was manufactured in Gujarat and mounted by a company in Chennai, while the software was developed and booted in IIT Madras. 

Institute director V. Kamakoti said: “After Rimo in 2018 and Moushik in 2020, this is the third Shakti chip we have fabricated at SCL and successfully booted at IIT Madras. That the chip design, fabrication, packaging motherboard design and fabrication, assembly software and boot have all happened in India, is yet another validation that the complete semiconductor ecosystem and expertise exists within the country.”

ISRO chairman V. Narayanan said, the end-to-end indigenously manufactured chip with Indian resources marked a milestone in the ‘Make in India’ efforts in semiconductor design and fabrication. Kamaljith Singh, director general of SCL Chandigarh, said post-silicon design validation and extensive electrical testing on water-level were conducted at SCL in close collaboration with the IIT Madras team.