The Shakti Processor

Tech Feeds by Pranatpal Sharma 

                                                      Processer Shakti

Hello friends! In this series, I will talk about popular technology news from around the world and some great contributions in the tech world made by India.

I am sure most of you already know what a processor is but still here’s a little insight into it: A processor as you know is the processing unit of the PC which collects data, converts it into binary data, reads it, apprehends it and gives the output.
 

The processor in the picture is an Intel Celeron
which is a very old processor that I had lying with me.

The processor we see is actually just the lid and the pins. Inside the lid is the die which is the main processing unit which contains CORES AND THREADS.

Now what are these Cores and Threads?

Well, to put it simply, cores are the brains of the CPU which handle all the hard work thrown at them and the main functional unit inside a processor.  Threads are actually virtual cores which do not actually exist but are part of the CPU. They are cores which are connected to the actual cores and each core has 2 threads meaning that a core has two functional units which handle the work.

Image Source: Internet

What this does is that rather than actually having a single core with a single thread (as the old processors had) it helps the processor to manage jobs by dividing the work. Think of a processor with 4 cores and 8 threads (as the image suggests). So, a single core can divide its work into the two threads which will let the processor process more information in less time and more efficiently and this is how the processors function.

Who are the biggest manufacturers of processors?

The mainstream ones are: Intel (Mobile Devices and PC), AMD (Mobile And PC), Qualcomm Snapdragon (Mobile Devices), MediaTek (Mobile Devices) and a new competitor .. Processor Shakti.

Processor Shakti

Processor Shakti, is a processor made by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and it is fully developed in India. The Shakti processor is made in 6 variants which are C class, I class, H class, M class, S class, T class (just like we know of intel and its modern ‘i' family of processors which are i3, i5, i7, i9) Now, why is this processor special?
 

Image Source: Internet

It is special because it is faster than most of the mobile device processors and is based on the RISC -V set of instructions while most mobile devices use ARM and most PC processors use the x86 set of instructions. (About these set of instructions, I’ll probably have to make a new post because this is a vast topic, so stay tuned …) These set of instructions are preloaded functions which tell a processor what to do in what condition. So, Shakti is special because the RISC-V set of instructions is more modern than x86 or ARM and it is better because it is much simpler and reduces the workload of the CPU, letting it perform more functions in less time, which is indeed a huge achievement. And Shakti is the only working processor to implant the RISC-V architecture in the processor. It is a 64-bit processor, which means, it can handle all the modern apps we normally run on our PC. All the classes of processors have different specifications but the most widely talked C Class is a 32 bit processor with 2 cores and 4 threads and is meant for the modern IoT Sector (Will upload a whole separate post on IoT as well so stay tuned :)
 

It has been successfully made (the manufacturing of the processor was done by Intel, Oregon) and is tested on the Linux Operating System and is working absolutely as intended. This processor will also be used by government agencies in the defense and IT sectors once it is stably launched worldwide.
 

So, that’s it for now folks, I hope you found it interesting and don’t forget to comment on how you liked this post. Let me also know if you would like me to cover any other topic and I’ll catch you all in the next one!