IIT Delhi Researchers Build India's First Working Indigenous Micro-GPU on FPGA Platform

Key facts

• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi's Electrical Engineering Department have developed India's first working, demonstrable indigenously designed micro-GPU from a university, demonstrated on a Spartan-7 FPGA board.
• The project was led by MTech students Nammi Akash and M Ravi Teja under the guidance of Prof Jayadeva and Prof Kaushik Saha.
• The micro-GPU is a smaller, programmable processor for handling graphics, aimed at affordable embedded devices rather than high-end computers.
• Potential applications include industrial display systems, human-machine interfaces, e-rickshaw dashboard navigators, navigation terminals for small fishing boats and educational e-book readers.
• The team is now working on a larger 8–16 core graphics processor architecture, an optimised compiler and software tools, and is exploring a proof of concept using a 65nm chip-making process while seeking funding for chip development and commercialisation.