a 180nm chip? It will be a power hog, but probably more hardened than smaller processes?Amber G. wrote: ↑03 Sep 2025 00:41 India Unveils Indigenous Vikram Chip for Space Tech Leap
India has achieved a major milestone in technology self-reliance by unveiling the Vikram 32-bit processor, its first fully indigenous semiconductor chip, at Semicon India 2025 in New Delhi on September 2. Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Semiconductor Laboratory, the chip is designed for space missions, enduring extreme conditions in rockets and satellites. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw presented it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emphasizing its role in reducing import dependence and boosting India's position in the global semiconductor market, backed by $18 billion in investments.
-News Reports.
Yes — a 180 nm chip will draw more power compared to advanced processes, but in this context it’s a deliberate and practical tradeoff. In space, a slightly “power-hungry” but radiation-hardened, reliable, and indigenous processor is often preferable to a sleek, low-power but fragile 5 nm chip.
Afaik, nothing below 65nm have been tested for space use. 180 looked high as I was honestly expecting a 90nm process.
Yep, hence my hope that we hit the 90nm mark. As an engineer, if 180nm is good enough, there is no need for anything smallerAmber G. wrote: ↑03 Sep 2025 02:32 ^^ yes, for radiation and thermal considerations..
(Just did some quick checking with google etc.. Space chips lag ~15–20 years behind commercial chips in process nodes and raw performance.
A typical space-grade CPU- today.
Process: 150–180 nm (some 90 nm, a few 65 nm), Clock: 100–300 MHz - 100–500 MIPS , Power: 5–20 W, Radiation tolerance: 100 kRad+ )
Floor on tested chips. As per wikipedia page, which gives a good overview, what was achieved is 110 nm for RADHARD in
Use of a special process node provides increased radiation resistance.[16] Due to the high development costs of new radiation hardened processes, the smallest "true" rad-hard (RHBP, rad-hard by process) process is 150 nm as of 2016, however, rad-hard 65 nm FPGAs were available that used some of the techniques used in "true" rad-hard processes (RHBD, rad-hard by design).[17] As of 2019 110 nm rad-hard processes are available.[18]
No I don't, and I don't want to. All I want is as many imported high-tech parts be replaced by indigenous ones as possible, as soon as possible, to ensure strategic autonomy
Then the answer is no. Not all chips are straight-up CPU types with software controlling behavior, most(?) are regular ICs, with very defined schemas.
Space use only, (replacing imported chips in satellites and rockets.)
As I mentioned in my reply, there are many types of ICs and most of the ICs are COTS components. Meaning, one can buy them on open market, but supply chain attacks are still possible. The question was if we can replace our existing ICs with this. Without knowing what type, no one can answer that question.