ISRO, SCL develops 32-bit Microprocessors for space applications

ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Chandigarh have jointly developed 32-bit Microprocessors -- Vikram 3201 and Kalpana 3201-- for space applications

Bengaluru: ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Chandigarh have jointly developed 32-bit Microprocessors — Vikram 3201 and Kalpana 3201– for space applications, the space agency has said.

Vikram 3201 is the first fully Indian-made 32-bit microprocessor qualified for use in the harsh environmental conditions of launch vehicles. The processor was fabricated at the 180nm (nanometer) CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) semiconductor fab of SCL. This processor is an advanced version of the indigenously designed 16-bit Vikram 1601 microprocessor, which has been operating in the avionics system of ISRO’s launch vehicles since 2009, ISRO said in a statement released late on Saturday.

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A “Make-in-India” version of the Vikram 1601 processor was subsequently inducted in 2016 after the 180nm semiconductor fab was established at SCL, the statement said. Kalpana 3201 is a 32-bit SPARC V8 (Scalable Processor ARChitecture, version 8) RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) microprocessor and is based on the IEEE 1754 Instruction Set Architecture, the space agency said.

This microprocessor has been designed to be compatible with open-source software toolsets along with in-house developed simulators and IDE (Integrated Development Environment), and has been tested with flight software, it said.

According to ISRO, Vikram 3201 and Vikram 1601 have a custom Instruction Set Architecture, with floating-point computation capability and high-level language support for the Ada language. All the software tools such as the Ada compiler, assembler, linker, simulator along with Integrated Development Environment (IDE) are developed in-house by ISRO, it said, a C language compiler is also under development for providing more flexibility to users in other domains.

This is the first of its kind in India and has enabled ‘Atmanirbharata’ in the area of high-reliability microprocessors and onboard computers for navigation, guidance and control of launch vehicles, it said. The initial lot of Vikram 3201 devices was successfully validated in space in the Mission Management Computer of the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM-4) in the PSLV-C60 mission, it added.

The first production lots of the 32-bit microprocessors — Vikram 3201 and Kalpana 3201 — were recently handed over to V Narayanan, Secretary, DOS /Chairman, ISRO by S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Four other devices that were jointly developed with SCL were also handed over towards significant miniaturisation of the launch vehicle Avionics system.

This includes two versions of a Reconfigurable Data Acquisition System (RDAS) integrating multiple indigenously designed 24-bit Sigma-Delta Analog to Digital Converters on a single chip along with a Relay driver Integrated Circuit, and a Multi-Channel Low Drop-out Regulator Integrated Circuit for high-reliability applications, it said.

An MoU was also signed between SCL & Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of ISRO for the development and delivery of miniaturized unsteady pressure sensors for measuring dynamic pressure in wind tunnels, the space agency added.