State- of-the-art Research Facility launched at IITM to work on Shakti

Chennai: A state-of-the-art research facility at Indian Institute of Technology(M) has been inaugurated.  ‘Veena and Pratap Subrahmanyam Centre for Digital Intelligence, Security Hardware & Architecture’ (V&PS - CDISHA) will work on SHAKTI, the IIT(M)-developed indigenous Microprocessor and build a new class of computers to handle emerging AI applications.

This centre has been made possible with the generous contribution of Rs. 6.76 crore from Mr. Pratap Subrahmanyam, an IIT(M) Alumnus of the 1985 Batch (BT/ME) and a Fellow at VMware, Inc.

In addition, the ‘MacDermid Alpha Center of Excellence in Electronics Assembly and Skills Development’ was also inaugurated on the occasion. It is an automatic PCB assembly facility established at the Central Electronics Center of IIT(M), with the support of Cookson India’s (MacDermid Alpha) CSR activity. It aims to train about 1,000 engineers and diploma holders per year. Apprenticeship is a part of this programme.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, virtually inaugurated the research facility at IIT(M) in the presence of Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras.

The V&PS - CDISHA Research Centre will also have an AI-ML Accelerator. Traditional computers cannot handle emerging AI applications as their architectures are more tuned towards general purpose computation. Running intelligence applications on the edge becomes even more challenging due to power constraints. The need of the hour is to have a new class of computers that meets the latency and power requirements of AI applications.

Towards meeting this requirement, IIT Madras Researchers are building a computer using Shakti Microprocessor. This computer has a novel component called ‘ShaktiMAAN’ (‘MAAN’ for ‘Multiply and Accumulate Network’), which is specialised for handling Deep Learning Inference. ShaktiMAAN works with the Shakti processor to accelerate Deep Learning workloads manifolds.

Highlighting the importance of this Research Facility, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT(M), said, “A big thanks to Mr. Pratap Subrahmanyam for having sponsored this Centre, which has come at a very right time when India was to announce the Semiconductor Mission and when we were moving towards establishing a fabrication facility. What we are looking at from this Centre is three important verticals. One is that we are designing hardware that needs to be secure, have certain basic ingredients that will make it execute certain applications that demand intelligence.”

Further, Prof. V. Kamakoti added,“We need a platform where we learn by experimentation rather than learn from the books, specifically, in the area of computer architecture. With the growth that we are seeing, any book written now will become outdated in a matter of 8 to 10 months. The best way of educating computer architecture organization operating systems is to basically do by experimentation. We wanted to create a platform wherein we can perform this. This centre has helped in achieving this goal.”

The key activities of this Research centre include

a)       RISC-V Architecture Compatibility Test (ACT) for RISC-V International

b)       Secure Shakti variant

c)       AI-ML Accelerator (Shaktimaan)

d)       Shakti IP Developments

e)       Out-of-order I-class variant of Shakti processor

f)        RISC-V Verification Activities

g)       DIR-V Initiative – Start-ups incubated from V & PS - CDISHA lab

Mr. Pratap Subrahmanyam, said, “I would really like IIT(M) to look at what it takes to actually make hardware development of various gadgets. Say tomorrow, we are sending a computer out into space or building a data centre in space, why should that be built with CPUs that we are familiar with today. Why would we not want it to be a CPU of a different architecture entirely... Do we have the capability to make it happen? That is a 15-20 year journey almost to build the ecosystem. That is the reason I want to help in this venture.”

He added, “Dr. V. Kamakoti has already outlined a bunch of accomplishments from this lab and there is a lot more waiting to happen. The traditional structure of CPU today where there is a cache, a Register file and a bunch of buses and memory all attached to it is not gonna be lasting very long. We are going to have desegregation of resources. The CPU ten years from now is not going to be look at all like what is there today. The Future is for us to make here.”

Dr. Ravi M. Bhatkal, Managing Director, India Element Solutions, Inc., said, “The Ministry has laid out a five-year vision document, which calls for quadrupling the electronics manufacturing base and capability in India over the next five years. Our vision and partnership with IIT(M) is to really help build this entire electronics manufacturing ecosystem on campus, to help build the workforce, help productise innovations and stimulate interdisciplinary research...Establishment of this centre is the first step in that direction and it is critical that we build a strong university-industry-Government partnership to achieve this vision.”

Thanking Mr. Pratap Subrahmanyam for his generous contributions, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT(M), said, “IIT(M) is on a growth trajectory that is unparalleled in today’s India. For the last decade or so, the rise of IIT Madras in every sphere of academic activity, from working with industry, alumni, creating student outcomes that were before now unseen in India, faculty research going up a notch, to creating a broader societal impact, we have demonstrated in the last decade or so, why we deserve to be the No: 1 ranked Institute in the country. This position of being ranked highly comes with a great deal of responsibility to showcase how any other academic institution in India should be able to chart out a path of its own but still be impactful for the country.”

Prof. Krishna Nandivada, Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering Department, IIT(M), spoke on the occasion.

The ‘MacDermid Alpha Center of Excellence in Electronics Assembly and Skills Development’ is being established with the state-of-the-art facilities for Surface Mount Technology Line, including a Solder Paste Printer, a Solder Paste Inspection System, a Component Pick and Place Machine, a Reflow Oven, and an Automatic Optical Inspection System.

ABOUT MR. PRATAP SUBRAHMANYAM

Mr. Pratap Subrahmanyam joined VMware in 2000 and has been a pivotal player in the company’s virtual machine monitor group. He was recognised for his technical leadership and significant contributions to the company in 2013 when he was appointed a VMware Fellow.

Previously a principal engineer at VMware, he contributed to the design of the MMU virtualisation. He also added to performance improvements, paravirtual interfaces design principles and more recently the symmetric multiprocessor fault tolerance for virtual machines.

Mr. Pratap Subrahmanyam has earned 26 issued patents, 21 of which he obtained while at VMware. He received his bachelor of technology from IIT Madras and holds a Master’s in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo.