NEW DELHI. Considering the limited opening that exist in the Indian R&D sector at present, Indian start-ups have grabbed this opportunity with aplomb to prove their innovative enterprise and have helped Indian industries in various sectors including defence in solving their specified needs. Gradually, Indian start-ups focused effort and product development is helping India gain traction and more visibility on the global R&D scene.
On December 27, Saankhya Labs, a startup and a vertically integrated communication system and transformative technology solutions provider launched Pruthvi -3, the world’s first and most advanced multi-standard Next Generation System-On-Chip (SoC). Pruthvi-3 is a fully programmable multi-standard chipset that supports next generation broadcast standards and is powered by Saankhya’s award winning SDR architecture and is available in multiple package options (SL3000 and SL4000) and will enable live broadcast TV capability on mobile devices and support video offload services from mobile networks to broadcast network.
The chip was unveiled and launched by Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha at a ceremony in New Delhi that also had in attendance, Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog, Shashi Shekar Vempati, CEO Prasar Bharti, Suresh Angadi, MP, BJP, and Anshu Prakash, Additional Secretary, DoT, Government of India and officials from Army’s Signal Corp.
In his address Parag Naik, Co-Founder and CEO, Saankhya Labs said, “It is an honour to unveil this “Make in India” chipset to the world. Indigenously designed and developed, the Pruthvi-3 family of processors will drive the next generation communications architecture required in the ‘Convergence era’ of broadcast and broadband infrastructure. Powered by our award-winning, patented Software Defined Radio (SDR) architecture, SL-30xx and SL-40xx can support worldwide broadcast communication standards and is targeted for use in the Mobile, UHDTV, STB, IoT and in-vehicle entertainment.”
Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Aayog, highlighting the development said, “It’s remarkable and moment of delight for all that Saankhya Labs has successfully designed and developed the most advanced multi-standard, next generation TV system on a chip. This is a very commendable achievement and will propel not only Saankhya Labs, but also India into the global R&D arena. It’s a major milestone for India’s semi-conductor and hardware industry, will make India self-reliant in communications technology in the long run and will also contribute to global telecom IPR. I think the time has come that we move from merely being a manufacturing nation to being a knowledge nation which innovates and creates value for the world, which is what Saankhya Labs is doing.”
Shashi Shekhar Vempati, CEO Prasar Bharati said, “This is a proud moment for India. I see this as a convergence of Make-In-India, Start-up India and Digital India and the future of mobile, broadband and broadcast convergence. The future of terrestrial TV is direct-to-mobile and this will need chipsets embedded in mobile phones capable of receiving video signals on both broadcast and terrestrial networks, leading to a one-converged user experience for smart phone owners. I hope to see this convergence between broadcast and broadband and availability of smart phones with this capability within a year or so. This will also help us unlock all the potential of the public investment that we’ve made in the terrestrial broadcasting industry.”
Later, Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Communications in his address assured all necessary support and emphasised that the government under the PM Modi’s vision has been and will be an enabler to extend to assist start-ups and entrepreneurs achieve success.
Further, Saankhya Labs is also working on its broadcast-broadband convergence solution that enables telecom service providers to offload video traffic from their mobile network onto the broadcast network. Thus helping them to monitor video traffic and decongest mobile spectrum use, leading to improvement and better usage of mobile spectrum, help reduce call drops and improve voice-call quality. Video traffic is the fastest growing traffic on mobile networks. World over, mobile data usage by video content is expected to increase exponentially by 2022. Therefore, this solution will help both the service provider and broadcasters such as Doordarshan to monetize their broadcast spectrum by reaching 300 million plus additional subscribers enabled by mobile reception. This chip will be a major enabler of this convergence solution.
Pruthvi-3 chipset is an improvement over the previous Pruthvi chip that was launched in 2015 and is an advanced SDR SoC manufactured in 28nm FDSOI process supporting advanced physical layer functionality. Additionally, with advanced computational capabilities coupled with ultra-lower power consumption and small foot print makes Pruthvi-3 is an ideal choice for multiple applications including mobile devices. The mobile ready version is a first-of-its-kind that supports most advanced IP based Next Gen Terrestrial TV reception.
As India’s first vertically integrated fabless semiconductor and systems company, Saankhya Labs offers solutions for telecom, broadcast, defence and satcom industry. Founded in 2007, Saankhya Labs is widely recognized for its pioneering work in SDR communication and has been awarded 27 patents along with several international and national awards. The launch of Pruthvi 3 is a great step towards making India self-reliant in communication technology and a prominent contributor to the telecom IPR. Indeed, a major milestone for India’s semiconductor and hardware industry.
