India's Chips: How Good Are The Desi Options?

It is exciting to know that India finally has its own electronic chips, thanks to the efforts of our academic institutes and industry players. But how competitive are these when compared to what’s manufactured abroad—in terms of technology, quality and cost?

- Baishakhi Dutta

The Indian chip design industry —including very large-scale integration (VLSI) design—is an integral part of the ESDM ecosystem. The growing demand for consumer electronic goods, a burgeoning telecom and networking market, and significant growth in the use of portable and wireless products are driving the growth of the semiconductor design industry. With the world’s top 25 semiconductor companies present in India today, the country has found its unique place on the global map.

It is only recently that India has started enjoying some success in electronics manufacturing, but the good news is that the fabless design industry has also made a good start. India is well recognised today as a favourable destination for fabless design services. Very recently, India witnessed major breakthroughs made by some organisations as well as academic institutions in the chip design space, which has given a boost to the ecosystem. But how do these desi chips fare when evaluated against the quality of global leaders in this domain? Will electronics manufacturers derive any benefits by using desi options? Let’s find out.

‘Made in India’ chips - A closer look

The year 2018 witnessed a breakthrough in the Indian chip design space with a group of engineers from IIT Madras making an interesting announcement. The team shared with the world their successful development of the first indigenously-built microprocessor, for use in mobile computing and wireless devices. This was followed by other welcome technological breakthroughs at IIT Bombay, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and Saankhya Labs. This series of similar achievements showcased the potential of the Indian chip design ecosystem.

So let’s take a closer look at these desi chips.