C-DAC Begins Trials of Indian AI Chip: Report
Fresh trials of a C-DAC processor offer the first sign of progress towards India’s long-promised production-grade AI chip.
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India’s indigenous artificial intelligence inference chip has entered trial production, with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) selecting HCL Infosystems to validate its design and performance, Mint reported on Friday, citing two unidentified senior government officials.
C-DAC has not publicly disclosed the processor’s specifications, manufacturing process or production partner.
HCL Infosystems was selected through a tender on the Government e-Marketplace. Subject to the necessary approvals, it will work with C-DAC to test the chip across different computing systems and architectures.
The government eventually plans to deploy the processor in domestic servers and information technology infrastructure and use it for public services and other AI applications, the report said.
Inference chips run trained AI models on new data, supporting tasks such as generating responses, analyzing information and recognizing images. India currently relies heavily on imported processors, with Nvidia dominating the global market for chips used in advanced AI systems.
The information released so far is insufficient to compare the C-DAC processor directly with Nvidia’s products. Its eventual competitiveness will depend on factors including computing performance, power consumption, memory capacity, software support, manufacturing cost and production volume.
Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reiterated that India expected to produce a production-grade indigenous AI inference chip by 2029 or 2030.
The project will be financed through the National Supercomputing Mission rather than Semicon 2.0, the government’s newly approved semiconductor program.
The Union Cabinet approved Semicon 2.0 on Wednesday, July 15, with an outlay of about ₹1.28 trillion, or $13.3 billion. It will support semiconductor factories, chip-design companies, equipment and materials suppliers, research and workforce development.
Vaishnaw said C-DAC would play an important role in creating semiconductor intellectual property owned by India. Research support under Semicon 2.0 is intended to encourage private companies and startups to develop more domestic chip designs.
C-DAC was established under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 1988 after the US denied India access to advanced supercomputers. The agency subsequently developed the Param series of indigenous supercomputers.
India has approved 12 semiconductor manufacturing projects, while 24 domestic chip-design startups have emerged and more than 70,000 people have received training in semiconductor design, according to the government.
