All of the innovations, systems technologies & capabilities that we need in the automotive IoT sensor space, mobility space and high performance computing space, the goal is to make sure that Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) has a serious presence in all of these three segments, said Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
In April 2022, towards Atmanirbhar Bharat, the Centre launched the DIR-V Program to create microprocessors for the future in India, for the world and achieve industry-grade silicon and design wins by December 2023.
Addressing the Digital India RISC-V Symposium on ‘future of Electronics in India through the RISC-V pathway in a virtual mode, the minister said that the Centre is committed to making DIR-V the Indian Instruction Set Architecture. “While we may continue to have activities and programs in the x86/ARM space, we are almost all in the DIR-V Programs. All of the innovations and systems and technologies and capabilities that we need in the automotive IoT sensor space, mobility space and high performance computing space, our goal is to make sure that DIR-V has a serious presence in all of these three segments.”
“Fifteen months after the SEMICON program was launched, we are now talking about the future of DIR-V and how IIT Madras is fast becoming a hub for innovation, creativity and future systems around DIR-V,” he said.
The one day symposium organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, IIT Madras and IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation, featured technology talks by esteemed academics and industry experts, interactive stalls showcasing indigenous RISC-V processors, an engaging hackathon, and a special Investor meeting.
V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Today is a very important event in the journey of semiconductors, which our country has embarked on. We started this journey during 2013-14 when we believed that there was going to be a major digital revolution that was going to happen globally and that many electronic devices were going to come closer to our lives. Each of those devices would have a microprocessor and there must be a concerted effort where we make our own microprocessors for our country. We must make our indigenous microprocessor and we must know what it contains. We should be in a position to quickly configure and customise the microprocessors according to the requirement.”