India shows off new home-grown CPU – but at 100MHz, 32-bit and 180nm, it’s a bit of a clunker
(2020/09/24)
- Reference: 1600925405
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/24/shakti_moushik_cpu_india/
- Source link:
India has taken another small step towards silicon-self-sufficiency with the unveiling of a new domestically designed system-on-chip. But the microprocessor is a few generations behind best practice and won’t set the world on fire.
Progress has, however, been rapid: India [1]announced a competition to encourage the use of export-replacement RISC-V microprocessor designs on August 19. On September 22, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras delivered a working sample of a new RISC-V-based chip in its Shakti series of open-source designs.
Fabbed using a 180nm process and named Moushik, the component uses the 32-bit [2]Shakti E-class core and can run at between 75Mhz and 100MHz. Its motherboard has Arduino-compatible headers, so can work with various daughter-cards, and also has must-haves like GPIO and UART support. Those specs make it suited to IoT and embedded applications.
There's more info here:
[3]Youtube Video
The chip's motherboard is also made in India.
None of the device’s specs are state-of-the-art. Intel, Arm, Qualcomm and Nvidia will not be quaking in their boots at the prospect of Moushik disrupting their businesses any time soon.
Indeed, the device does not even represent India’s best efforts, as the E-class Shakti core is the architecture’s least-powerful spec. But as the world is going to build IoT devices by the billion, Moushik could yet find an audience, even as a proof of concept.
Even if it only helps to grow India's capacity to build other silicon that's a win, because the device and its motherboard were designed and made in India, which is a step towards the nation’s plan to [4]make electronics manufacturing its top industry and become a big electronics exporter. ®
Get our [5]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/19/india_microprocessor_challenge_risc_v/
[2] https://gitlab.com/shaktiproject/cores/e-class
[3] https://youtu.be/KpRJe915-9I?t=270
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/02/india_electronics_manufacturing_push/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Progress has, however, been rapid: India [1]announced a competition to encourage the use of export-replacement RISC-V microprocessor designs on August 19. On September 22, a team from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras delivered a working sample of a new RISC-V-based chip in its Shakti series of open-source designs.
Fabbed using a 180nm process and named Moushik, the component uses the 32-bit [2]Shakti E-class core and can run at between 75Mhz and 100MHz. Its motherboard has Arduino-compatible headers, so can work with various daughter-cards, and also has must-haves like GPIO and UART support. Those specs make it suited to IoT and embedded applications.
There's more info here:
[3]Youtube Video
The chip's motherboard is also made in India.
None of the device’s specs are state-of-the-art. Intel, Arm, Qualcomm and Nvidia will not be quaking in their boots at the prospect of Moushik disrupting their businesses any time soon.
Indeed, the device does not even represent India’s best efforts, as the E-class Shakti core is the architecture’s least-powerful spec. But as the world is going to build IoT devices by the billion, Moushik could yet find an audience, even as a proof of concept.
Even if it only helps to grow India's capacity to build other silicon that's a win, because the device and its motherboard were designed and made in India, which is a step towards the nation’s plan to [4]make electronics manufacturing its top industry and become a big electronics exporter. ®
Get our [5]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/19/india_microprocessor_challenge_risc_v/
[2] https://gitlab.com/shaktiproject/cores/e-class
[3] https://youtu.be/KpRJe915-9I?t=270
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/02/india_electronics_manufacturing_push/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
You have to start somewhere ...
UCAP
... and India have sensibly tried to build something that is technologically easy to master. This is a very sensible approach. I'd bet that the next few years will see them progressively raise the technology bar until Nvidia, Intel, et al do start to worry.
From linked Reg article:
"We're told Shakti has been taped out and fabricated at 180nm by the Indian government's Semi-conductor Laboratory in Chandigarh, and at 22nm by Intel's foundry. "
- in case anyone else was wondering.
I don't know too much about chip foundries... could India buy second hand kit from Intel et al that was once used for commercial 48nm (or whatever) chip manufacture? Is uprooting a production line even worthwhile?
Also, I'm a bit fuzzy about India's motivation here - is it to give experience to budding silicon chip designers, ensure a trusted chip supply chain for national security purposes, or a combination of the two?