India is a country with dreams, vigorously promoting its domestic chip processor industry... Recently, the Centre for Advanced Computing Development (C-DAC) of India officially announced that it is developing its first domestically produced ARM-based CPU, whose overall parameters look quite impressive, and it is expected to be officially released in 2024.
01. India releases first details of Arm processor
According to C-DAC, India is developing a range of Arm-based processors to provide a variety of options for domestic applications, covering chips used in smart devices, IoT, AR/VR, high-performance computing, and data centers.
This includes the Vega CPU series, based on dual-core and quad-core architectures, primarily targeting entry-level customers requiring low-power and low-cost chips, which will cover at least 10% of India's chip demand. C-DAC also plans to launch an eight-core chip within the next three years as an upgrade to its previous Dhruv and Dhanush Plus chips. In addition, there is the AUM processor for HPC and servers, which will also be part of India's National Supercomputing (NSM) program.
As a product designed for high-performance computing, this AUM chip features 96 Arm Neoverse V1 architecture cores codenamed "Zeus," supports up to 96GB of HBM3 memory, and also supports 16-channel DDR5 memory. The 96 cores are distributed across two chiplets, each based on the A48Z chiplet having 48 cores, independent memory, I/O interfaces, C2C/D2D interconnects, cache, security, and an MSCP subsystem. Each chiplet has 96MB of L2 cache and 96MB of system cache, and the two chiplets are connected via a D2D chiplet on the same expansion board.
In addition, the AUM chip provides 64/128 PCIe 5.0 lanes, supports CXL, and can run on a platform that can contain two of these chips.
In terms of manufacturing process, the AUM processor will be manufactured based on TSMC's advanced 5nm process, resulting in a CPU frequency of approximately 3.0-3.5GHz. In terms of performance, pure CPU nodes will provide up to 10 TFLOPs of performance per node, with each socket delivering over 4.6 TFLOPs of computing power improvement. Dual-socket server designs can also support up to four standard GPU accelerators.
C-DAC will also be preparing to launch software and development tools for HPC systems to fully realize the performance potential of its AUM processor.
02. India's Dream: To Become a Global Semiconductor Hub
The launch of the AUM processor not only means that India's chip manufacturing industry has more technological and resource support, but will also open up new channels for India to export chips.
It is worth noting that just today, the Japanese government invited seven major semiconductor giants, including TSMC and Samsung, to discuss Japan's semiconductor strategy. India is also striving to become a global semiconductor hub.
In response, the Indian government has followed the example of chip incentive laws introduced by countries such as the United States and Japan, and has launched various incentive measures and programs to promote foreign investment in a wide range of sectors.
Recently, Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, the Indian Semiconductor Delegation (ISM), and Counterpoint Research hosted a series of webinars with key industry speakers to discuss opportunities for establishing a semiconductor manufacturing base in India and diversifying the supply chain as a major destination. The webinars primarily focused on four central themes:
1. A semiconductor market spanning multiple industries and applications;
2. Government programs and incentives targeting foreign manufacturers;
3. Talent availability and retraining programs;
4. And current infrastructure capabilities and support for semiconductor manufacturing.
Back in 2021, India proposed a $10 billion plan to encourage chip manufacturing in India. Now, the proposal has been revived. Amitesh Kumar Sinha, CEO of the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Joint Secretary of the Ministry, stated, “India is committed to becoming a reliable partner in the global supply chain, and we are achieving this through long-term policies, keeping in mind that over the next 25 years, more than 70% of the costs of semiconductor manufacturing projects will be incentivized by the Indian central and state governments, with 50% prepaid by the central government and the remainder borne by the state governments.”
Furthermore, India sees significant opportunities in components utilizing mature technology nodes (28nm and above) in the near term, as they support India's growing automotive and industrial sectors. Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint, stated, "In the short term, domestic demand for applications such as sensors, logic chips, and analog devices will present tremendous opportunities. Local sourcing has already largely occurred. By 2022, it will account for approximately 10% of the overall market."
Beyond financial support and market exploration, they also explored existing infrastructure capabilities and the availability of skilled labor, material supply, and other parts of the local supply chain. For example, India’s own manufacturing unit, Semiconductor Labs (SCL), provided an end-to-end case study highlighting the robustness of India’s supply chain in utilities, materials, and talent.
In fact, India has been working hard to promote the development of its domestic chip manufacturing industry over the past few years. With the increasing global demand for electronic products, especially in the field of mobile devices such as smartphones, India has begun to feel the urgent need to manufacture its own chips.
However, to become a global semiconductor hub, India still faces numerous challenges, such as funding, talent, and technological support. A $10 billion subsidy is not a significant investment for developing the semiconductor industry chain, especially considering India's gap with international standards in technology and talent. Without addressing these issues, achieving self-sufficiency in domestic chip manufacturing will be difficult.
However, the size of India's semiconductor market is quite attractive to major manufacturers. According to statistics, India's semiconductor market size was US$22.7 billion in 2019 and is expected to surge to US$64 billion by 2026. The 2026 forecast will be driven by both domestic and export markets, with significant demand from the consumer electronics, telecommunications, IT hardware, and industrial sectors, providing tremendous opportunities for the global semiconductor manufacturing industry.
