IIT Madras And ISRO Develop IRIS Chip, Showcasing India’s End-To-End Semiconductor Capability

In a significant breakthrough for India's semiconductor industry, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have jointly developed an indigenous semiconductor chip that promises to serve multiple applications across sectors, including space exploration and computing technologies, reports Business Standard.

The IRIS (Indigenous RISC-V Controller for Space Applications) chip was developed by IIT Madras in collaboration with ISRO’s Inertial Systems Unit (IISU) in Thiruvananthapuram.

Manufactured at the Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Chandigarh, the chip was packaged at Tata Advanced Systems in Karnataka.

The project is being hailed as a “major step towards Atmanirbhar Bharat in addressing computing needs for space and other sectors.”

The IRIS chip is built on the Shakti processor baseline, a pioneering initiative by IIT Madras under the ‘Digital India RISC-V’ programme, spearheaded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

It has been designed to meet the strategic computing requirements of ISRO’s command and control systems, enhancing operational efficiency and reliability in space missions.

The project aims to reduce dependency on foreign semiconductor components and bolster India's indigenous capabilities in chip design and fabrication.

Professor V Kamakoti, who leads the Shakti microprocessor project, highlighted the significance of the achievement, stating, “After RIMO in 2018 and MOUSHIK in 2020, this is the third SHAKTI chip we have fabricated at SCL Chandigarh and successfully booted at IIT Madras. That the chip design, fabrication, packaging, motherboard design and fabrication, assembly, software, and boot all happened inside India, is yet another validation that the complete semiconductor ecosystem and expertise exist within our country.”

The chip’s motherboard was manufactured by PCB Power in Gujarat, with assembly and mounting carried out by Syrma SGS in Chennai. The software for the chip was developed at IIT Madras, ensuring an entirely ‘Make in India’ approach.

ISRO Chairman V Narayanan lauded the collaboration, stating, “We at ISRO are very happy that IRIS Controller conceived by IISU based on SHAKTI processor of IIT Madras could be successfully developed end-to-end with Indian resources. This marks truly a milestone in ‘Make in India’ efforts in semiconductor design and fabrication.”

Kamaljeet Singh, Director General of SCL Chandigarh, also praised the initiative, saying, “SCL is proud to be associated with IIT Madras and ISRO in the successful development of IRIS-LV Processor. SCL is committed and continually working in association with academia and startups to facilitate and achieve Atmanirbharta in the realisation of niche products.”

The IRIS chip is expected to play a pivotal role in future ISRO missions while also opening up new possibilities for the Internet of Things (IoT) and computing applications.

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