Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have developed ‘MOUSHIK,’ an indigenously-made Microprocessor that can cater to the rapidly-growing IoT devices as they become an integral part of smart cities for a digital India.

As the researchers shared, MOUSHIK is a processor cum ‘system on a chip’ and was conceptualised, designed and developed at the Pratap Subrahmanyam Centre for Digital Intelligence and Secure Hardware Architecture (PS-CDISHA) of the RISE Group, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras.

The MOUSHIK Silicon is manufactured using 180-nanometer technology and has 103 functional IOs. It has a Core Voltage of 1.8v, IO Voltage of 3.3v, with a Gate Count of 647k, among other features.

Prof. Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Reconfigurable Intelligent Systems Engineering (RISE) Group, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras explained that there are three steps involved in the making of a microprocessor —  Design, Fabrication and Post-Silicon Boot-up. “All three processes for MOUSHIK were undertaken in India, demonstrating an ‘Atma Nirbhar’ ecosystem in Digital Design Productisation,” he said.

Some if the areas where it can be implemented are:

• Smart cards including Credit cards, ID Cards, Debit cards, Travel Cards for Metros and Driving Licenses
• Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)
• Office Management Systems including Attendance, surveillance cameras and safe locks
• Personalised Health Management Systems
• Consumer Electronics including but not restricted to Washing Machines and Water pump monitoring systems

“Shakthi MOUSHIK SOC will constitute the heart of an indigenously-developed motherboard called ‘Ardonyx 1.0,” said Prof. Kamakoti said.

MOUSHIK is an Indigenous RISC-V Microprocessor and is the third chip of the SHAKTI family. The first indigenous chip in the SHAKTI series was designed and booted up SHAKTI in October 2018.

The SHAKTI microprocessor system design is based on RISC-V ISA which is an open, free ISA enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. ISA is the programming or machine language and provides commands to the processor instructing it on the functions to be executed.

The Project is funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.