SHAKTI Processors: An Open-Source Hardware Initiative

Summary form only given. State-of-the-Art Computer Architecture research at Indian Academic Institutions is majorly restricted due to unavailability of processor design models that are close to current commercially available cores. The SHAKTI processor initiative aims at breaking this barrier between Academia and Industry by providing open-source Processor and SoC designs. With the advent of RISC-V ISA by UC Berkeley, we have a simple, clean and most importantly an open source ISA that can be used to design processors which have the potential to match the current day processors in the market. The initiative is also driven to provide substantial information about design decisions and promote more competitive learning environment in academia. The processors from SHAKTI will help in aiding research related to architecture, where one can run simulations on the actual hardware and obtain much accurate results, rather than settling with a lesser accurate software simulation. Since these processors and designs are targeted for real-world use, they can also be freely adopted by industries, thereby supporting the initiative further in terms of product-driven research.In this workshop we plan to talk about the various designs that we are working on and how they can be used. The proposed tutorial consists of four parts. The first part emphasizes on the need for open-source hardware design and the rationale behind our choices of ISA and HDL. The second part covers about our microcontroller class (C-class) core and the verification and debug environment. The third part presents our flagship processor which is the industrial class (I-class) core; the various design decisions involved and some performance metrics. The final part concludes on the note of future work and upcoming releases under SHAKTI.

Speaker Biographies

V. Kamakoti currently holds the post of professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has more than 15 years of experience in computer systems development and specializes in the area Computer Architecture, CAD for VLSI and High Performance Computing. Professor Kamakoti holds a Master of Science degree and a doctorate of philosophy in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has authored a number of research papers that have been published in various international journals and in the proceedings of many scientific conferences.