IIIT Dharwad students design indigenous chip Siddharoodha-1

Dharwad: In a significant step towards India’s semiconductor self-reliance, a team of students from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Dharwad (IIIT Dharwad), has designed an advanced silicon chip named ‘Siddharoodha-1’, after renowned philosopher and social reformer Siddharoodha Swami.

Developed by third- and fourth-year students, the achievement is being viewed as an important milestone, showcasing the growing capabilities of Indian academic institutions in the global semiconductor ecosystem.

The Siddharoodha-1 is a GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) expander chip designed to enhance the functionality of microcontrollers and single-board computers. It enables systems to connect with a larger number of sensors, actuators and peripheral devices, thereby improving interfacing capacity and allowing multiple devices to function simultaneously.

IIIT Dharwad is among only six Indian institutions selected as part of a global semiconductor initiative involving 55 institutions worldwide. The institute collaborated with leading chip design software company Synopsys and global fabrication firm GlobalFoundries for the project. The chip was taped out at GlobalFoundries’ facility in Germany, marking a crucial stage in chip development before fabrication.

Assistant professor Jagadish DN said the chip is based on the open-source RISC-V processor architecture. One of its key features is scalability, as multiple Siddharoodha-1 chips can be interconnected to significantly increase input and output capacity. This makes it suitable for industrial automation, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and smart device applications.

The project was undertaken between May and Sept 2025 as a special tape-out initiative. The student team, led by final-year BTech electronics student Shivashankar B, worked extensively on design validation, debugging, interface optimisation and performance enhancement under the guidance of industry experts Anand Baria and Santosh Devanalikkar.

IIIT Dharwad director SR Mahadeva Prasanna said such initiatives align with the goals of the India Semiconductor Mission, Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat, while helping reduce dependence on imported chips.

The report accurately mentions the achievement of IIIT Dharwad students in designing and developing the GPIO chip, which has numerous applications in industry. This kind of complete, ready-for-fabrication design of semiconductor chips is rare in the Indian technical campus scenario. The report further mentions the collaboration with Synopsys and Global Fab for further development and physical production of the chip prototype. This answers the question of whether it is a semiconductor chip being built and if it’s being done in India.