Whenever discussion takes place about the manufacture of Micro-Processors then US based companies like Intel and AMD stand out as the top manufacturers. They are referred as the key players of the Silicon Valley as their products are marketed through out the World.
However the situation is expected to change in the future as per the present trend. India is amidst of an IT Revolution and an Electronic Revolution is also ignited.
Engineers from IIT Bombay have developed a new microprocessor called AJIT—the first ever microprocessor to be conceptualised, designed, developed and manufactured in India . It is based on SPARC ISA Architecture. As a reminder, India developed it’s first indigenously produced developed processor in the form of Shakti. However , that was developed in collaboration with Bluespec and it is based in RISC-V Architecture. Both of these projects have been funded by
Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MeiTY) Government of India.
This was a proud moment for the Government of India, IIT Academia and Indian Electronic Industries. All of them came collaborated together and made this Idea into Reality. The project was headed by Dr Madhav Desai (Prof. IIT Bombay) along with a team of 9 graduate students. The required infrastructure was provided by Powai labs in Mumbai to build the AJIT processor.
AJIT consists of an arithmetic logic unit that can do basic arithmetic and logical operations like addition, subtraction and comparison. It has a memory management unit which can store and retrieve data from the memory. AJIT also contains a special floating point unit that is designed to handle calculations with non-integer numbers efficiently. It also has a hardware debugger unit that helps to monitor and control the AJIT processor. It’s built on a 180nm technology, though that will eventually be bumped up to 65nm. The CPU has clock speed around 70-120 Mhz and it can be mass manufactured for just Rs 100 ($1.43) per unit!
AJIT is a medium size processor. It can be used inside a set-top box, as a control panel for automation systems, in a traffic light controller or even robotic systems. Researchers also have a plan to use AJIT in Indian satellites . It can also be used in the receivers which are developed for NAVIC or IRNNS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System).
Researchers have made the software tools associated with AJIT available in Open Domain.Thus other interested Researchers can study the Processor’s design and learn processor designing from scratch.
This Micro-Processor is highly beneficial as it has many future implications and is expected to impact the Country in a Positive Manner. The very fact that India can use it’s own processor in Satellites, Nuclear Reactors and other Security and Defence Equipments is of great significance and implications for the Country.
We are hoping that people use AJIT and plan and build equipment using it. We are ready and prepared to support them. We have a seed, and we need people to grow it.
Professor Desai
The major groundbreaking impact will be on India’s Electronics Industry as 10% of India’s imports are Electronic Peripherals which only comes second after Petroleum.Since AJIT can be used as an Embedded Processor in a variety of diverse electronic devices and due to it’s cheap price of ₹ 100, it will leave a positive mark on the Indian Consumer Market and will lay a major foundation for making the nation self dependent and self sufficient. The estimated time for it to be launched in the Market is estimated to be 1-2 Years. It is a major advent in terms of the ‘MADE IN INDIA’ campaign and it has also opened the doors for Research and Development in India.
