Friday, January 24th 2025

First "Made in India" Chip Projected to Launch This Year

Mid-week—at the World Economic Forum in Davos—India's government announced that its native semiconductor industry will release its debut product at some point this year. A similar announcement was made at last year's event, but the reported 28 nm "Made in India" chip would eventually miss its (then) projected December 2024 launch date. Press outlets have focused on Ashwini Vaishnaw's latest prediction for 2025—the Union Minister believes that everything will align neatly for his nation's fledgling semiconductor industry. Additionally, industry stakeholders have expressed confidence in the Semicon India program (initiated back in 2021).

He stated: "Our first 'Made in India' chip will be rolled out this year, and now we are looking at the next phase, where we can get equipment manufacturers, material manufacturers and designers in India...For materials, from parts per million purity, we need to go to parts per billion purity levels. This requires huge transformative changes in the process and the industry is working to achieve this." Vaishnaw is chief of India's AI Mission—this program has set itself some ambitious goals for 2025 and beyond. A primary objective is the founding of a common compute facility that will make use of 10,000 GPUs. The Minister for Electronics and Information Technology outlined the country's next phase of AI industry development—the creation of an indigenous AI model, and homegrown AI chip designs.
Sources: Tom's Hardware, Business Standard, Communications Today India
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15 Comments on First "Made in India" Chip Projected to Launch This Year

#2
sudothelinuxwizard
28nm?? What the hell? I mean, competition is good, obviously, but what kind of "AI GPUs" are they gonna be making on a process that Taiwan and the USA started manufacturing in 2010? Because even for literal SSD controllers this is very outdated. In my opinion they should simply try to develop a process that isn't hopelessly outdated (competitive with 5LPE or N7P seems like a good starting point) and contract manufacturing out to TSMC in the meantime.
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#3
Fatalfury
sudothelinuxwizard28nm?? What the hell? I mean, competition is good, obviously, but what kind of "AI GPUs" are they gonna be making on a process that Taiwan and the USA started manufacturing in 2010? Because even for literal SSD controllers this is very outdated. In my opinion they should simply try to develop a process that isn't hopelessly outdated (competitive with 5LPE or N7P seems like a good starting point) and contract manufacturing out to TSMC in the meantime.
yea its outdated to say the least..maybe for elctronics that dont need cutting edge.

they are just taking baby steps now..but ur right..using "28nm +first ever chip+AI" dont go well together.
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#4
freeagent
Gotta start somewhere.

You wont be seeing low numbers like you do from TSMC for quite some time. Even China is 20 years behind on the lithography front.
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#5
boidsonly
freeagentGotta start somewhere.

You wont be seeing low numbers like you do from TSMC for quite some time. Even China is 20 years behind on the lithography front.
That is why the CCP wants Taiwan.
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#6
freeagent
boidsonlyThat is why the CCP wants Taiwan.
Shhh. No talky.
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#7
DaemonForce
I don't have high hopes for it. They might make some banger embedded systems at 28nm but zero future on scaling unless "a chicken in every pot" is the end goal.
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#8
sudothelinuxwizard
Plus, unless they can price it competitively, why would anyone in their right mind use India's 28nm instead tried and true from GloFo, IFS, or TSMC? And if they price it competitively, they may make a loss since R&D for a first-ever node is probably very high.
freeagentGotta start somewhere.

You wont be seeing low numbers like you do from TSMC for quite some time. Even China is 20 years behind on the lithography front.
More like 7 years. SMIC can produce 7nm chips with (presumably?) decent yields; see the Kirin 9020.
Posted on Reply
#9
freeagent
sudothelinuxwizardPlus, unless they can price it competitively, why would anyone in their right mind use India's 28nm instead tried and true from GloFo, IFS, or TSMC? And if they price it competitively, they may make a loss since R&D for a first-ever node is probably very high.


More like 7 years. SMIC can produce 7nm chips with (presumably?) decent yields; see the Kirin 9020.
Last I saw was 65nm a few months ago on one of the China news shows. Figures.
Posted on Reply
#11
Caring1
I can make chips at home too, all I need is one potato.
Posted on Reply
#12
sudothelinuxwizard
Caring1I can make chips at home too, all I need is one potato.
Nah. You need some oil and a frying fan too.
Posted on Reply
#13
TheinsanegamerN
sudothelinuxwizard28nm?? What the hell? I mean, competition is good, obviously, but what kind of "AI GPUs" are they gonna be making on a process that Taiwan and the USA started manufacturing in 2010? Because even for literal SSD controllers this is very outdated. In my opinion they should simply try to develop a process that isn't hopelessly outdated (competitive with 5LPE or N7P seems like a good starting point) and contract manufacturing out to TSMC in the meantime.
You have to walk before you can run.

India currently has nothing in terms of chip making. Given literally everyone but TSMC is struggling right now, india starting with the comparatively easy 28nm makes way more sense. Besides, if they wanted to do sub 7nm, they need EUV equipment, and ASML is booked solid for YEARS. So where would you propose they get the equipment? People also forget BRICS, there's been a big push within BRICS to centralize trade between each other and away from the west as much as possible. Int he event of an economic cold war like what russia is going through right now, all the non cutting edge components would need to be manufactured by someone, TSMC would be out, as would intel and samsung. That leaves GF, which is likely going to be more expensive then what India could make once they are running.
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#14
YaFilthy
Good for India's economy I reckon!
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#15
DigitalDude
It is mostly for our own strategic/defence needs and basic consumer things like appliances. Nothing fancy.

Just reducing the foreign dependency on even basic things.
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