Govt ropes in world’s top chip IP company Arm to help Indian startups

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) today announced a collaboration with Arm, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company, to broaden the support under the Design Linked Incentive Scheme (DLI) and boost the growth of the semiconductor market in India.

As part of the collaboration, the Arm Flexible Access for Startups program, which gives $0 license fee access to a broad portfolio of verified Arm IP, tools and training, is now broadening its qualification criteria to welcome applications from startups that qualify under the SemiconIndia futureDESIGN DLI scheme of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), according to an official statement.

Arm Flexible Access for Startups provides low-risk, easy access to industry-proven technology, technical support, an extensive ecosystem, and Arm’s broad developer base.

With Arm Flexible Access, startups building products across all markets have the best chance of success with a fast, low-risk journey to building a working prototype, securing the next round of funding, and instilling confidence in potential investors. Arm Flexible Access for Startups also offers technical support and training to rapidly upskill teams, alongside a choice of experienced Arm Approved Design Partners to bring extra capacity and capability along their journey.

“Innovative silicon startups will drive the future of the semiconductor industry as they develop life-changing new technologies in areas from AI to autonomous vehicles and IoT,” said Guru Ganesan, President, Arm India. “We are committed to supporting startups, and through the Arm Flexible Access program, we offer the freedom to experiment, innovate and design, so they can become the technology leaders of tomorrow.”

According to CDAC Director General E. Magesh under this collaboration signed in Gandhinagar, CDAC and Arm intend to work towards the following broad objectives:

• Startups selected under DLI will qualify for the Arm Flexible Access for Startups program.

• Arm will provide the startups with access to processor and system IPs, reference designs, GPU, ISP, and AI accelerator IPs, and software development tools.

• Arm will provide access to thousands of Artisan physical IP products supporting multiple foundries and process nodes for physical design and implementation.

The DLI scheme aims to offer financial incentives as well as design infrastructure support across various stages of development and deployment of semiconductor designs for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked designs over a period of five years. The DLI Scheme is implemented by C-DAC.

Under the DLI Scheme, ChipIN centre has been setup at C-DAC as one stop centre to provide chip design & fabrication services to supported companies. Five startups/ MSMEs were earlier approved by MeitY for support under the DLI scheme and announced during the 2nd and 3rd DLI Roadshows held earlier this year in Bangalore (February) and Delhi (May). With this announcement, a total of 7 start-ups under the DLI Scheme will be working on making chip and IP cores for automotive, mobility and computing sectors.

For more details, visit https://chips-dli.gov.in/ and the Arm website at https://www.arm.com/products/flexible-access/startup.