Mindgrove Technologies launches RISC-V-based SoC for IoT applications

Peak XV Partners-backed fabless semiconductor startup Mindgrove Technologies announced the launch of a commercial system-on-chip (SoC) called Secure IoT. The chip is expected to improve cost efficiency for Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for their feature-rich devices. Secure IoT will cost 30% less than other chips in similar segments, said Mindgrove in a statement. 

Secure IoT can be used for wearables like smartwatches and EV battery management and control systems. It can be used for connected home devices like smart locks, fans, speakers, and smart city devices like connected electricity, water, and gas meters. Reference boards will be available for OEMs to try out in the coming weeks.

Secure IoT offers features such as a large number of I/Os, key security algorithms implemented as hardware accelerators, secure boot, and on-chip one-time programmable memory. The chip is intended to be used with bare metal code or any microcontroller RTOS (real-time operating system), thus opening up arenas like traffic control systems, autonomous vehicles, medical equipment, etc.

“The pandemic revealed the wide gap between high-end and low-end players in the embedded systems space, with the latter prioritizing cost and volume over the chip’s actual performance,” said Shashwath TR, chief executive officer (CEO) and c0-founder of Mindgrove Technologies. “Thus, we set out to design chips that target the middle market. ‘Right-sizing’ has been the key differentiating factor when it comes to Mindgrove, giving it an edge over others, with enhanced flexibility, adaptability, security and cost-efficiency coupled with a robust support system.”

Secure IoT is based on RISC-V, an open-source instruction set architecture. Given no licensing-related obstruction, RISC-V has emerged as a strong alternative to dominant designs such as ARM and x-86. In April 2022, the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) launched the Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) program to promote India as the hub for RISC-V talent.