In 1991, when Linus Torvalds created the open-source operating system Linux, it threatened Microsoft's business because Linux was an alternative to its core product, Windows.

The open-source nature of Linux allows developers from around the world to contribute to its development, creating a robust and versatile operating system. Additionally, Linux's stability, security, and scalability make it suitable for a wide range of applications, from personal computers to servers and embedded devices.

It played a significant role in the open-source software movement, even prompting former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to refer to Linux as a "cancer."

Now, we are witnessing a similar movement in the hardware domain with RISC-V, an open-standard instruction set architecture (ISA) that aims to eliminate licensing fees and royalties, allowing anyone to use, develop, manufacture, or sell RISC-V chips and software.

RISC-V originated from a project at the Parallel Computing Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley in 2010 and is challenging Intel's x86 and ARM architectures.

For example, a recent report from Next Platform suggests that Meta is transitioning from traditional CPUs to RISC-based components. This shift is attributed to the power efficiency, improved performance, reduced latency, and flexibility to accommodate various workloads offered by RISC-V.

India has also recognized the immense potential of RISC-V and sees it as a catalyst for establishing a robust chip design ecosystem domestically.

Building RISC-V as India's ISA

To achieve this goal, the Indian government launched the Digital RISC-V (DIR-V) project in April 2022, aiming to drive the development of next-generation microprocessors in India and position the country as a key center of global RISC-V expertise.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister, who was a chip designer himself, has been actively involved in promoting and supporting the RISC-V architecture.

"Indeed, with the ambition of a nation and thousands of engineers in the room, we will master and become leaders globally, or at least one of the world's leading nations in propagating and leveraging the capacity and capability to create around the RISC-V and DIR-V family of chips and systems. The Government of India fully supports making DIR-V India's ISA," the Minister said.

India considers chip design as one of its core strengths and actively participates in computing system design across various domains, including industrial IoT, automotive, telecommunications, wireless technologies, and strategic technologies. DIR-V processors are expected to drive the development of systems in these diverse fields and bring healthy competition to other processor-based systems.

"RISC-V is a tool or framework that allows us to innovate rapidly to meet the demand for well-designed chips. Its open-source nature enables us to choose between different extensions and implementations while remaining compatible with well-defined standards," said Shashwath T R, Co-founder and CEO of Mindgrove Technologies, to AIM.

Developing the RISC-V Ecosystem in India

However, to build a strong RISC-V ecosystem in India, the country needs more companies to emerge in this field and more investment. Additionally, the country needs to create a specialized workforce dedicated to RISC-V architecture.

The DIR-V program aims to create over 10,000 jobs in the next five years. Furthermore, "We need more companies working in different aspects - including silicon and related areas such as verification, core and peripheral IPs, physical design, etc., in every vertical domain relevant to India," said Shashwath.

To sustain the ecosystem, India also needs different groups to build development boards, development tools, and software aspects such as compilers, debuggers, IDEs, etc.

In addition, RISC-V and related specifications are developed, approved, and maintained by RISC-V International, a diverse membership-based organization that includes industry leaders, academic institutions, startups, and individuals. It has over 3,000 members in 70 countries, including major semiconductor companies, software providers, and system integrators.

India needs a strong presence in the decision-making bodies of RISC-V International to ensure that its concerns become top priorities.

"Finally, we need to see our users - the companies and brands building products based on our chips - adopt on a large scale, which ultimately boils down to building chips that are compelling for them to incorporate into their products," said Shashwath.

Opportunities for Indian Startups

Nevertheless, the government's focus on RISC-V does provide an opportunity for Indian startups to innovate and achieve the goals of the DIR-V program. Due to its open-source nature, it allows startups and entrepreneurs to build their own products without the need for expensive licensing fees.

This openness provides flexibility for Indian startups to innovate and customize chip designs according to their specific requirements. Indian startups can leverage RISC-V to develop indigenous chip designs, contribute to the self-sufficiency in semiconductor technology, and serve global customers.

"RISC-V's openness, industry-wide adoption, and the foundation of decades of building microprocessors make it an attractive standard we focus on. Not only is it much cheaper than using traditional ISAs, but our designers can also immediately adopt innovative designs and microarchitecture, software, and tools," said Shashwath.

According to Shashwath, Mindgrove's initial products are based on the RISC-V Shakti C-Class processor developed at the RISE lab at IIT Madras.

Gani Subramaniam, Senior Partner at Celesta Capital, previously told AIM that RISC-V is driving the emergence of new startups in India, and more RISC-V startups are securing funding in India.

Chandrasekhar also emphasized that startups like Mindgrove Technologies, Ventana MicroSystems, Esperanto Technologies, InCore Semiconductors, and Morphing Machines are rising in the DIR-V ecosystem. Additionally, the government is considering acquiring equity in these companies to nurture startups in this field.

A more open architecture is more secure as it allows independent researchers to conduct red team testing and identify vulnerabilities that need to be addressed. The efforts of independent contributors have made Linux a highly secure system.

"RISC-V benefits from the same idea, and there is a vibrant security community around RISC-V. In fact, that's how the story of Shakti came about - the IIT-M team was looking for an architecture to do security research and such work. Closed-source architectures didn't allow them to do so without multiple restrictions, hence Shakti was born," added Shashwath.