SHAKTI is an open-source initiative at IITM to develop a computer chip based on the open RISC-V ISA, along with other components and tools. The SHAKTI chip was fabricated last year, both in India and the US, and soon ran linux. More info can be found at the SHAKTI gitlab project, or in this academic paper and news article.

Dr. Neel Gala, tech lead for the SHAKTI project and CTO of InCore Semiconductors, will cover these topics related to SHAKTI:

1. Introduction to RISC-V
2. Genesis of SHAKTI
3. Technical Challenges of the SHAKTI design
4. Manufacturing in India
5. Open Source for India

Most of the talk will be about the technical challenges the SHAKTI team had to solve, everything from dealing with caching and branch prediction to verification and test. Previous presentations by Dr. Gala can be found online, this one covers mostly new material.

The itinerary will be as follows:

4:30-5:20 SHAKTI Talk 5:20-5:40 Q & A 5:40-6:00 Informal discussion

Thanks to AtWorks for hosting us at their Perungudi office.

If you have any problems affording the event or with this ticketing process, contact the organizer at the email below.

If you cannot attend the event, but would be interested in attending possible future talks on cutting-edge technical topics like this, contact the organizer at the below email and let us know.

For any other questions, problems, comments, etc., contact the organizer, Ajay, at this email address: im@dirk.eml.cc.