The Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have developed and booted an indigenous SHAKTI‐based semiconductor chip. This effort is a major step in India’s drive for self‐reliance in advanced semiconductor technology. The project is led by Professor V. Kamakoti at the Prathap Subrahmanyam Centre for Digital Intelligence and Secure Hardware Architecture at IIT Madras. The development supports the nation’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
The SHAKTI project uses the open‐source RISC-V instruction set and is supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the Digital India RISC-V initiative. This chip known as IRIS (Indigenous RISCV Controller for Space Applications) is built from the SHAKTI processor baseline. It is designed for applications in space missions, the Internet of Things and strategic computing. The chip configuration meets the functional needs of sensors and systems used in ISRO missions.
The entire project was completed in India. The idea came from the ISRO Inertial Systems Unit in Thiruvananthapuram. IIT Madras handled design and implementation. Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL) in Chandigarh manufactured the chip, Tata Advanced Systems in Karnataka packaged it and PCB Power in Gujarat produced the motherboard printed circuit board (PCB). Assembly was done by Syrma SGS in Chennai, while the software was developed and booted at IIT Madras. This coordinated effort shows that India has a strong semiconductor ecosystem.
Professor Kamakoti said this is the third SHAKTI chip made at SCL Chandigarh after RIMO in 2018 and MOUSHIK in 2020. He noted that the chip design, fabrication, packaging, assembly and booting were all successfully completed in India. ISRO Chairman Dr. V Narayanan congratulated the teams and stated that the IRIS controller will support future space mission controllers. This project firmly establishes a new benchmark for semiconductor design and fabrication under the Make in India initiative.
