IIIT Dharwad Students Design Indigenous Siddharoodha-1 Silicon Chip
A team of third- and fourth-year students at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Dharwad (IIIT Dharwad) in Karnataka has designed an advanced, indigenous silicon chip named ‘Siddharoodha-1’. Named after the renowned philosopher and social reformer Siddharoodha Swami, the chip represents a significant step forward in local semiconductor design capabilities.
The project was executed as a special tape-out initiative between May and September 2025. The student development team was led by Shivashankar B, a final-year BTech electronics student, who worked alongside peers on design validation, debugging, interface optimisation, and performance enhancement.
The Siddharoodha-1 is a General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) expander chip designed to enhance the capabilities of microcontrollers and single-board computers. Based on the open-source RISC-V processor architecture, the chip allows systems to connect with a larger number of sensors, actuators, and peripheral devices simultaneously.
According to IIIT Dharwad assistant professor Jagadish DN, the chip’s key feature is its scalability. Multiple Siddharoodha-1 chips can be interconnected to significantly increase input and output capacity, making it highly applicable for industrial automation, robotics, smart devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The student team designed the chip under the guidance of Jagadish DN and industry experts Anand Baria and Santosh Devanalikkar. To realize the project, IIIT Dharwad collaborated with chip design software firm Synopsys and global fabrication company GlobalFoundries. The physical design was taped out at GlobalFoundries’ facility in Germany, preparing the prototype for fabrication.
IIIT Dharwad is one of only six Indian institutions chosen to participate in a global semiconductor initiative that includes 55 institutions worldwide.
IIIT Dharwad director SR Mahadeva Prasanna noted that the initiative aligns with national goals such as the India Semiconductor Mission, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and Viksit Bharat, helping to reduce India's reliance on imported semiconductor chips.
