IIT-Delhi researchers build homegrown graphics chip for low-cost devices

Why in the News

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) have built a programmable micro graphics processing unit (GPU) designed in India. The team describes it as the first working, demonstrable indigenously designed micro GPU from a university in India. All GPUs in use in the country are currently imported. The processor is built for graphics and display work rather than for high end artificial intelligence computing, and it runs on a Spartan 7 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board rather than as a standalone silicon chip. What has been closed is the design gap, and the manufacturing gap is a separate one.

What is a micro GPU on a Field Programmable Gate Array?

1. What a graphics processing unit does: A GPU is a processor built for rendering graphics and driving displays, as distinct from a general purpose processor or from the accelerators used for artificial intelligence workloads.
2. What a Field Programmable Gate Array is: An FPGA is reconfigurable hardware on which a processor design is implemented and run, rather than a chip manufactured for that one design.
3. How the design is written: The hardware is described in Register Transfer Language (RTL), a hardware description notation, and that description is then implemented on the FPGA platform.
4. What a fabricated chip would be: An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is the same processor design manufactured as a dedicated silicon chip. Moving from an FPGA demonstration to an ASIC is a manufacturing step, not a design step.

What has the team actually built?

1. A programmable architecture, not a fixed function block: The team developed a programmable graphics processor architecture capable of graphics rendering, described in Register Transfer Language and implemented on the FPGA platform.
2. The claim being made: Researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering state that, to the best of their knowledge, this is the first working, demonstrable indigenously designed micro GPU from a university in India.
3. The current form of the system: It runs on a Spartan 7 FPGA board rather than as a standalone silicon chip.
4. The stated objective: The stated aim was a compact but genuinely programmable graphics processing architecture suitable for FPGA implementation and future ASIC realisation.

Where would such a processor be used?

1. Industrial and interface displays: Industrial control displays and low cost human machine interfaces are the primary target.
2. Mobility and navigation: Uses named include e rickshaw dashboard navigators and inland water navigation terminals for small fishing boats.
3. Education and reading: Educational devices and e book readers are a further target, alongside other affordable embedded visualisation systems.
4. The form the design takes: The architecture is offered as a scalable, reusable graphics processor design rather than as a finished product, so it can be dropped into different embedded systems.

Why target low cost embedded uses rather than artificial intelligence computing?

1. The import position: All GPUs used in India are currently imported, so a domestic design of any class changes a total dependence.
2. The deliberate scope: The processor is designed for graphics and display applications rather than high end artificial intelligence computing, which is where global GPU competition and cost are concentrated.
3. The stated purpose: The researchers state that indigenous hardware systems of this kind can support affordable digital access platforms and contribute towards bridging the digital divide.

What remains between the demonstration and a chip?

1. Two possible paths: The design can be implemented on programmable hardware such as FPGAs, or converted into an Application Specific Integrated Circuit.
2. What conversion involves: An ASIC would mean manufacturing the processor design as a dedicated silicon chip. The current work remains at the FPGA demonstration stage.
3. The next architectural step: The team is exploring an eight to 16 core vector style graphics processor architecture, along with an optimised compiler and a graphics software toolchain.
4. The fabrication milestone: The longer term plan includes a proof of concept using a 65 nanometre ASIC process.

Conclusion

India now holds a graphics processor design it did not hold before. It does not yet hold a graphics processor. The step that would change that is fabrication, and the team’s own roadmap places a silicon proof of concept in the longer term rather than the near one. What to watch is whether the design attracts a foundry commitment, since a demonstration that stays on a reconfigurable board displaces no import.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2026] Which of the following statements about DHRUV64 is/are correct? 1. It is the third chip fabricated under the DIR-V Programme to enable creation of microprocessors for India. 2. It is India’s first homegrown 1.0 GHz, 64-bit dual-core microprocessor. (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2 Answer: (c)”