Two Indian startups, Silizium Circuits and Calligo Technologies, are making their mark at Semicon Taiwan 2024, as they seek to establish a foothold in the global semiconductor market.
Silizium Circuits, supported by Taiwan's government and incubated at IIT Hyderabad, is building on its collaboration with TSMC to develop cutting-edge semiconductor chips.
Meanwhile, Bengaluru-based Calligo Technologies is showcasing a Posit-enabled RISC-V CPU designed to enhance efficiency in AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. Both companies are leveraging the event to expand partnerships and position themselves for future growth in the fast-evolving semiconductor landscape.
Silizium circuits
Silizium Circuits, a startup incubated with IIT Hyderabad FabCI, is receiving support from Taiwan's government and is based at the Tainan site of Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA-South). The company is looking to expand its network and form partnerships within Taiwan's semiconductor ecosystem.
Silizium Circuits has developed two working semiconductor chips in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), with additional projects in the pipeline. The startup was selected for a program run by Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and TTA, providing it with opportunities to engage more deeply with Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
Rijin John, co-founder and director at Silizium Circuits, told Digitimes Asia that Semicon Taiwan highlights the latest technologies and tools in the semiconductor industry, from pre-silicon design and semiconductor fabrication to post-silicon testing and analysis.
"Semicon Taiwan is one of the largest events in the semiconductor industry, drawing over 85,000 participants from 56 countries," John said. "I'm pleased to have met many like-minded executives interested in partnering, collaborating, and growing. There is strong optimism surrounding Indian startups, the market, and the government initiatives supporting the sector."
John noted that deep tech and emerging sectors, along with their devices, are expected to become increasingly interconnected through wireless technology, including automotive, robotics, AI/ML-driven sensors, health tech, consumer electronics, navigation, 6G, and Industry 4.0.
"This offers Silizium Circuits a significant opportunity to expand into markets across various sectors and geographies," John added.
Calligo Technologies
The Bengaluru-based Calligo Technologies is showcasing the world's first 8-core Posit-enabled RISC-V CPU, designed to improve efficiency in AI and HPC workloads. The chip, called TUNGA Silicon, powers Calligo's new accelerator card and is designed to enhance performance by combining the open-source RISC-V architecture with Posit arithmetic.
The company's approach integrates RISC-V for processors and Posit, a new real number representation developed by mathematician John Gustafson, for coprocessors.
In a statement, Anantha Kinnal, co-founder and CEO of the company, said the combination of these technologies offers power and efficiency gains that are essential for large-scale computing applications.
"CalligoTech believes that Posit is a game-changing invention at the grassroots level, with the potential to establish new standards for computing," Kinnal said. "These technologies, when scaled up, are crucial for achieving Zetta scale computing faster due to significantly lower power consumption. Posit-based systems, using fewer bits, will enhance network bandwidth and storage utilization. This has extensive implications at the system, cluster, and overall supercomputing levels."
Calligo's TUNGA chip, built using 28nm process technology, has already found a US-based customer. The company is now targeting a global market that includes supercomputing centers and research laboratories.
"Our work on Posits started as a discussion between Dr. John Gustafson and me at an SC event a few years ago," Kinnal said. "This discussion led to a paper submission to the next SC event, which was selected for showcasing in the Emerging Technologies Track. Now, we will be demonstrating silicon, system, and cluster at SC'24 this year."
Indian startups target global expansion
The participation of Silizium Circuits and Calligo Technologies at Semicon Taiwan 2024 reflects the growing interest of Indian startups in the global semiconductor industry.
Both companies are leveraging the event to forge new partnerships, showcase their innovative technologies, and position themselves for expansion into international markets.
Rajaraman Subramanian, CTO and Vinay N Hebballi, COO, Calligo Technologies. Credit: Calligo Tech.
