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

[T0@st]

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.



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[Event Horizon]

Need more decentralization.

 

[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 Because even for literal SSD controllers this is very outdated. In my opinion they should simply try to develop a process that isn't hopelessly outdated (competitive with 5LPE or N7P seems like a good starting point) and contract manufacturing out to TSMC in the meantime.

 

[Fatalfury]

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 Because even for literal SSD controllers this is very outdated. In my opinion they should simply try to develop a process that isn't hopelessly outdated (competitive with 5LPE or N7P seems like a good starting point) and contract manufacturing out to TSMC in the meantime.

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.

 

[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.

 

[boidsonly]

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.

That is why the CCP wants Taiwan.

 

[freeagent]

That is why the CCP wants Taiwan.

Shhh. No talky.

 

[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.

 

[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.

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.

More like 7 years. SMIC can produce 7nm chips with (presumably?) decent yields; see the Kirin 9020.

 

[freeagent]

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.


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.

 

[sudothelinuxwizard]

Last I saw was 65nm a few months ago on one of the China news shows. Figures.

Weird, because that is definitely not true:

Huawei sticks to 7nm for latest processor as China's chip advancements stall

But 7nm is still produced in high-volume.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Caring1]

I can make chips at home too, all I need is one potato.

 

[sudothelinuxwizard]

I can make chips at home too, all I need is one potato.

Nah. You need some oil and a frying fan too.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

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.

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.

 

[YaFilthy]

Good for India's economy I reckon!

 

[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.

 

[sudothelinuxwizard]

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.

You know, if they were really trying to get away from the west/NATO, wouldn't it be wiser to build their own EUV equipment?

Good for India's economy I reckon!

From what I've read, this may also be another strategy to garner more support for the incumbent political party. Without getting to deep into politics, based on their past track record they'll omit the fact that the node is hopelessly outdated and say it's all thanks to the incumbent prime mininster.

 

[Macro Device]

wouldn't it be wiser to steal the EUV equipment?

This is how it works here in BRICS. I live here, I know the drill.

Reverse engineering is ongoing. Garbage tempo because almost everyone with a brain used said brains to flee rather than to get a scientist job because getting paid in banana boxes isn't that exciting.

Whoever paranoid about that can hereby be chill because it can't be developed fast enough to be a threat.

 

[sudothelinuxwizard]

This is how it works here in BRICS. I live here, I know the drill.

Reverse engineering is ongoing. Garbage tempo because almost everyone with a brain used said brains to flee rather than to get a scientist job because getting paid in banana boxes isn't that exciting.

Whoever paranoid about that can hereby be chill because it can't be developed fast enough to be a threat.

Oh yeah, that's certainly possible. Still, I would assume ASML would have thought about that, no?

Besides that, my condolences and hopefully you used a VPN to write this.

 

[Macro Device]

my condolences

Nah, it's fine. I enjoy living in screwed up places. Risks make me feel alive, y'know.

you used a VPN to write this.

I did not. It's pointless because if I were reported they'd have found out anyway. They know how to push buttons no matter how a VPN service provider treats their clientelle. I only use VPN if there's no other way to access the site I wanna access. They've gone full gonzo with that lately, sometimes the whole interweb ain't accessible, even whitelisted pages. And yeah, there's a lotta internet resources that were banned at some point but they received pardon. And guess what? ISPs dunno about that so we still need a VPN for that. Ridiculous.

 

[freeagent]

Risks make me feel alive, y'know.

Come to Winnipeg lol

 

[Macro Device]

Come to Winnipeg lol

No disrespect m8 but I can't stand Canadian English. If I ever move to Canada that would be French Canada. Also, my plan is to escape winters so I'm going to South Africa.

 

[freeagent]

No disrespect m8 but I can't stand Canadian English. If I ever move to Canada that would be French Canada. Also, my plan is to escape winters so I'm going to South Africa.

Ugh, terrible. No disrespect taken or given