
IIT-Madras powers up a desi chip
Why it is in news?
- The initial batch of 300 chips named RISECREEK, produced under Project Shakti, have been fabricated free at Intel’s facility at Oregon, U.S., to run the Linux operating system.
- This microprocessors can be adapted by others, as the design is open source.
- They optimise power use and compete with international units such as the Cortex A5 from Advanced RISC Machines (ARM).
- On the test bench, the IIT design fared better than the A5, measured in terms of the DMIPS per megahertz rating, scoring 1.68 against the competition’s 1.57.
- At a frequency of 350 MHz, RISECREEK can meet the demands of defence and strategic equipment such as NAVIC (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite) and Internet of Things (IoT)electronics.
- What makes RISECREEK different is the open source nature of the designs.
Project Shakti
- The Shakti plan started in 2014 as an IIT-M initiative.
- Last year, the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology funded a part of the project,