Promising a bright R&D future for the country, the students of IIT-Bombay have developed a microprocessor named AJIT, which is wholly conceptualised, designed, developed and manufactured in India, reports The Indian Express.

Hoping that such developments shall reduce country’s imports and make India self-reliant in electronics, Professor Manav Desai of the department of electrical engineering said, “AJIT marks the first time in the country’s history where industry, academia and the government have come together. I and my team of nine researchers have designed the processor entirely at the institute. We made the chip of the microprocessor at the government-owned Semi-Conductor Laboratory in Chandigarh”.

It is a jointly funded project by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and IIT-Bombay. The Powai labs too has invested in the venture with rights to own and market the product.

Just like most of the microprocessors in the market, AJIT is equipped with an arithmetic logic unit, that helps in doing basic arithmetic and logical operations like addition, subtraction and comparison. The microprocessor also has a memory management unit that stores and retrieves data from memory.

The medium-sized microprocessor can be used inside a set-top box, like a control panel for automation systems, in a traffic light controller or even robotic systems. When produced en-masse, say nearly 10 lakh units, AJIT will cost less than Rs 100.

Students C Arun, M Sharath, Neha Karanjkar, Piyush Soni, Titto Anbadan, Ashfaque Ahmed, Aswin Jith, CH Kalyani, Nanditha Rao assisted Desai in the project.