Theres a standing joke in thechipdesign that the IIT Madras corridor is the best route to a key role in the global ecosystem. One in five semiconductor chips designed at giants such as Qualcomm, Intel, Texas Instruments, and NXP Semiconductors has been through the hands of an Indian, mostly from IIT-Madras. Thats because these MNCs head to day 1 of placements at the institute to pick the cream of the talent.
Design and R&D of chips typically needs talent in device physics, computational algorithms, mathematics and data analytics.
Tamil Naduhas a vast Network of engineering colleges offering electronics and communicationsengineering (ECE) programmes for this. The state also has more than 140 colleges offering VLSI (very large system integration) courses. The VLSI course helps train students in designing semiconductor devices and circuits. The states MSME ecosystem for PCB design and layout is also among the largest in the country.
All computer processors use an instruction set architecture (ISA) and currently there are two in the market -ARM and RISC-V. Before RISC-V arrived, ARM-based processors dominated giving the West a monopoly. But with advancements in RISC-V, India can take the fight to the American giants.
IIT-Madras, for instance, has been focused on indigenous chip and microprocessor design for over 10 years now. And a team led by current IIT-M director V Kamakoti made Indias first indigenously developed RISCV microprocessor SHAKTI.