IIT-Madras creates India's first indigenous microprocessor called 'Shakti'
Lead researcher and Professor Kamakoti Veezhinathan said on Friday that 'Shakti' is India's first and indigenous microprocessor that has been developed by Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) at an outlay of about Rs 11 crore, which will not be outdated anytime soon,
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras has designed and booted up 'Shakti', which can be used for wireless and networking systems, as well as mobile computing. It will also reduce its reliance on imported microprocessors that are used in sectors like communication and defence.
Professor Veezhinathan from Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IITM went on and said, "The microprocessor will not get outdated as it is one of the few 'RISC V Microprocessors' in the world now".
Veezhinathan, the lead researcher at IITM's Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) Laboratory said that "Shakti" could be used by others as it was at par with international standards.
The design of the microprocessor system starts with choosing the right ISA (Instruction Set Architecture).
"Shakti" processors are based on RISC-V ISA, said the professor, adding that RISC-V is an open, free ISA, enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration.
RISC-V ISA delivers a new level of free, extensible software and hardware freedom on architecture, paving the way for the next 50 years of computing design and innovation.
The ISA is basically the programming or machine language and provides commands to the processor instructing it on the its functions to be executed, said the professor.
According to Veezhinathan, the concept to design the chip was germinated in 2011 and some preliminary works were carried out.
In 2017, the project gained speed with about Rs 11 crore funding from the Indian government.
"We have proved that a microprocessor can be designed, developed and fabricated in India. This is important for the country.
"All the countries would like to own the design part. Even from the security point of view, indigenous design gains importance," noted Veezhinathan.
(With IANS inputs)
