News Brief
ISRO Gets First Production Lots Of New 'Made In India' Chips For Space Missions—What You Need To Know
VIKRAM3201 microprocessor (Pic Via ISRO)
India has achieved a major milestone in space-grade electronics with the development and deployment of two 32-bit microprocessors—VIKRAM3201 and KALPANA3201—designed specifically for launch vehicle applications.
These chips mark a significant step in India's journey towards self-reliance in critical space technologies.
The VIKRAM3201, in particular, is the first fully indigenous, space-qualified 32-bit microprocessor fabricated in India.
Designed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and manufactured at the 180nm CMOS fabrication facility of the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Chandigarh, the chip represents a generational leap from its predecessor—the 16-bit VIKRAM1601.
The older chip has been flying onboard ISRO’s launch vehicles since 2009, and a fully “Make-in-India” version of it was inducted in 2016 once domestic fabrication capabilities matured.
VIKRAM3201 supports custom instruction set architecture, features floating-point computation capabilities, and has native high-level language support for Ada language.
All supporting software tools—including the Ada compiler, simulator, and IDE—have been developed in-house by ISRO.
A C language compiler is currently in progress to further expand application domains.
Meanwhile, KALPANA3201 is a 32-bit SPARC V8 RISC microprocessor and is based on the IEEE 1754 Instruction Set Architecture.
It has been designed to work with open-source software toolsets along with in-house developed simulator and IDE, and has been tested with flight software—making it a versatile candidate for future avionics applications.
The official handover of the first production lots of these processors took place on 5 March in New Delhi.
At a ceremony organized by SCL, S Krishnan, Secretary of MeitY, handed over the chips to V Narayanan, Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, ISRO.
In addition to the microprocessors, four other devices that were jointly developed with SCL were also handed over towards significant miniaturisation of the launch vehicle Avionics system.
These included two versions of a Reconfigurable Data Acquisition System (RDAS) integrating multiple indigenously designed 24-bit Sigma-Delta Analog to Digital Converters on a single chip along with a Relay driver Integrated Circuit and a Multi-Channel Low Drop-out Regulator Integrated Circuit for high reliability applications.
