India is making strides in the global semiconductor industry with the emergence of ambitious companies like InCore Semiconductors. Incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras), InCore aims to develop indigenous processors, from embedded chips in home appliances to high-performance microprocessors.

The Journey

InCore was founded in 2018, but the foundation of the project was laid much earlier. IIT-Madras began its semiconductor research in 2007, under the leadership of Professor V Kamakoti, who is now the director of the institute. In 2012, Madhusudan joined the research team and became a key part of the development of Shakti – the team’s pioneering RISC-V processor platform.

In May 2023, InCore received a seed investment of $3 million led by Peak XV (formerly the India and Southeast Asia arm of Sequoia Capital). This investment opens up a huge opportunity for the company to expand its research and development of RISC-V architecture-based products, helping India reduce its dependence on semiconductor imports.

Ambition to Build a Complete Ecosystem

InCore has laid out a roadmap for its development in three main phases:

1. Embedded processors: This is the initial step, targeting the market that accounts for two-thirds of all processors in everyday electrical and electronic devices. The company wants India to have strategic autonomy over intellectual property (IP) for processors in this segment.

2. PC and mobile processors: Having established a solid foundation in the embedded sector, InCore will expand into the mid-range processor segment. 3. High-performance processors: The company’s ultimate goal is to produce chips for high-performance computing systems that compete with international products.

According to Madhusudan, the company has achieved about 70-80% of its initial target. Currently, two lines of InCore processors have been shipped to customers, and a higher-performance 1.5 GHz version is also coming soon.

India and the Future of Semiconductors

InCore’s development is part of a long-term strategy to build a semiconductor ecosystem in India. While the country is currently dependent on foreign countries for several areas such as GPUs, design tools, and fabrication plants, things are changing. Major projects such as fabrication plants and OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing) are being implemented by the Tata group and other companies, paving the way for the Indian semiconductor industry to thrive in the future.

With InCore’s progress and support from the government and major technology corporations, India is gradually approaching its goal of becoming a semiconductor powerhouse, reducing its dependence on imports and enhancing domestic technological capabilities.