India's first homegrown microcontroller set to launch in six months

India’s first indigenously designed commercial microcontroller is likely to be launched in the next six-to-seven months by Chennai-based Mindgrove Technologies, its co-founder and chief executive Shashwath T R told FE. The company has begun production of its Secure IoT chip.

“We’ve finished the prototyping and the design changes required after testing. If all goes to plan, we want to launch the chip by September-October this year,” he said.

The Secure IoT chip is applicable in wearables (smartwatches and headphones), connected home devices (smart locks, speakers, and smart fans), smart city devices (electricity, water, and gas meters), access control devices (biometrics), and other devices such as thermal printers and point-of-sale machines, and EV battery management. Shashwath explained that the manufacturing quantity will be determined in the coming weeks as the company completes contracts with firms who need the microcontroller.

While it prepares to commence commercial manufacturing for the first chip, the design startup is also completing the design of its second chip — the Vision SoC chip. Targeted for high-performance edge computing and video processing applications, Vision SoC (System-on-Chip) will be appropriate for applications and devices with functions that require identification and video processing.

This chip will have application use cases in devices such as CCTV cameras, dashcams, video recorders, automotive ADAS, smart TVs, and conjunction with other devices with video processing requirements. The company received approval for the development of the second chip from the ministry of electronics and information technology in September of last year under the design-linked incentive scheme.