Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge | UPSC

AIM

• To provide further impetus to the strong ecosystem of Start-up, innovation and research in the country.

ORGANISERS

The challenge is made available by IIT Madras (शक्ति processors) and C-DAC (वेगा processors), powered by FPGA Boards of XILINX which is supported by CoreEL Technologies funded by MEITY.

TIMELINE

• The Challenge spread over 10 months, kick-starts with registration process at on 18th August 2020 and culminates in June 2021.

PROCESSORS

• IIT Madras and Center for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC) have developed two microprocessors named SHAKTI (32 bit) and VEGA (64 bit) respectively.
• These are using Open Source Architecture under the aegis of MEITY.

SHAKTI MICROPROCESSOR

• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has released the software development kit (SDK) for its open-source Shakti processor.
• Shakti is based on the open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture .

• The plan was to release a family of six classes of processors, each serving a different market.
• The group promised that the reference processors will be competitive with commercial offerings in terms of area, performance and power consumption.

VEGA PROCESSOR

• C-DAC has successfully completed the design, development and validation of a series of 32-bit /64-bit Single and Multi-core high performance processors named ‘VEGA’.

• C-DAC has also integrated a wide range of in-house developed Silicon proven System and Peripheral IPs .
• The complete software ecosystem comprising of the Board Support Packages ,IDE plug-ins and Debugger for development, testing and debugging is also available.

SCOPE OF स्वदेशी MICROPROCESSOR CHALLENGE

• “Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge- Innovate Solutions for #Aatmanirbhar Bharat” seeks to invite innovators, startups and students. 

• Also it focuses has to mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology and most crucially cutting dependency on imports.
• The design, development & fabrication of these state-of-the-art processor variants at foundry in the country and abroad.
• These are small yet successful step to leapfrog to ultimate goal of vibrant ecosystem of Electronic System Design & Manufacturing in the country.
• The “Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge” is part of the series of proactive, preemptive and graded measures taken by Ministry of Electronics and IT.
• This will spur the technology led innovation ecosystem in the country and staying at the forefront of digital adoption.

ELIGIBILITY

• The contest is open to all Indian students pursuing undergraduate, postgraduate & Doctoral degrees in Engineering discipline with Indian Colleges and Universities.

• Ministry of Electronics and IT offers a slew of benefits to the contestants like internship opportunities and regular technical guidance .

PRIZE