The Shakti microprocessors marked India’s entry into indigenous semiconductor manufacturing and advanced microprocessor technology.
The microprocessor chips are based on RISC-V architecture, developed on 180 nm nodes and fabricated at the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL), Mohali, and later at 22 nm nodes in Intel’s fabrication plant in Oregon, US.
The project, which started at IIT Madras in 2014, was meant to reduce dependency on imported microchips, at least according to media reports at the time. But nearly six years after the announcements, we have yet to see any signs of it.
RISC-V Yet to Take Off
One reason for this could be that RISC-V is still a relatively new architecture. Today, many global devices are based on Arm and x86 architectures.
Semiconductor analyst Arun Mampazhy believes RISC-V products have not yet gained significant traction in the commercial market. “To compete effectively against established architectures like x86 and ARM, RISC-V needs to demonstrate not only safety but also commercial feasibility and compelling advantages such as cost-effectiveness,” he told AIM.
However, he also adds that various entities, including China and several companies, are actively pursuing this technology. Interestingly, in 2022, the Indian government established the Digital India RISC-V Microprocessor (DIR-V) Programme to back India’s effort to make microprocessors.
Another reason why the Shakti processors haven’t gained momentum is that the project was never undertaken with commercialisation in mind.
“The Shakti microprocessor is a breakthrough university project that put India on the global high-performance MCU map. However, it was never expected to be commercial on its own, which IIT Madras, as an academic institution, is not equipped to do,” Shashwath TR, co-founder & CEO of Mindgrove Technologies, told AIM.
The intent was to encourage companies to adopt the design (open-source) and build on top of it. Veezhinathan Kamakoti, the director of IIT Madras and the man behind the Shakti project, echoed this sentiment.
Commercialisation of ‘Designed-in-India’ Microprocessors
Interestingly, companies such as Mindgrove Technologies and InCore Technologies have emerged from that ecosystem and have developed chips that they are now bringing to market.
Mindgrove, which was incubated at IIT-M, has developed its own indigenous microprocessor chip based on Shakti architecture. Earlier this year, the startup announced it plans to launch its first microprocessor chip, the MG Secure IoT, in the market.
(MG Secure IoT by Mindgrove Technologies)
According to the startup, the microprocessor, which is based on a 28 nm node and offers a 700MHz clock speed, could help replace nearly 5-10 million imported chips.
“We keep the whole sales process simple. Every month, we identify a few OEMs and ODMs that may be interested in our first chip—MG Secure IoT—and start talking to them. We intend to match the technical and commercial requirements for their products,” Shashwath added.
Explaining further, Shashwath said that in the industry, a large part of the sales process is the technical evaluation phase, which could last for months. “Most of our conversations are in this phase for our product MG Secure IoT. A few customers are talking to us about the MCU’s datasheet and chip specifications; others are seeking samples. Yet, others are looking at our reference designs.”
According to GS Madhusudan, InCore’s co-founder and CEO, the company is also shipping its processors, Azurite and Calcite, to its customers.
Dominant Players Already Exist in the Market
Mindgrove Technologies will be directly competing with chips/boards from highly reputed players like Texas Instruments, Realtek and NXP Semiconductors.
“There already exist evolved ecosystems, especially concerning reference designs and people with experience using those chips. Since our product is new, and there is no existing ecosystem around Mindgrove chips, we are going above and beyond concerning solutions and support,” Shashwath said.
Despite being industry-grade and ‘Made-in-India’, convincing OEMs/ODMs to adopt the startup’s chips will definitely be an arduous task.
Shashwath also agrees that convincing everyone to trust us right now (and not next year) is a challenge which they are trying to solve by providing unprecedented support to early adopters.
Mamphazy believes Mindgrove will have to ensure its products are among the best that the industry has to offer to make some kind of impact. “If not, the best they will acquire are a few government projects which would want to build with an Indian chip, but that won’t be the case in the global market.”
China has Cheaper Alternatives
On the other hand, Mindgrove will tussle with competitively priced Chinese brands such as Espressif. India’s semiconductor imports have been increasing every year, reaching Rs 129,703 crore in 2022-23.
Interestingly, imports from China have also increased by 53% during the same period. This is mainly due to the availability of cheaper alternatives in China.
For Mindgrove to be price-competitive, it needs to scale fast—in millions of units—to offer OEM/ODM customers a competitive price.
“We know pricing the first million will be harder than the next million. The only way to succeed in pricing is to aggregate volumes quickly, and much of our effort is focused on that.”
Nonetheless, he also adds that the startup hopes to make an announcement in the JAS (July-Aug-Sep) quarter. “Considering the design cycle timelines, products designed with MG Secure IoT will hit the market by early/mid-2025,” Shashwath concluded.
