India has become part of an exclusive group of six countries—the US, France, Russia, China, and Japan—which have developed Cryogenic technology indigenously, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan said.
Addressing the inauguration of a research center at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras on Monday, Narayanan underscored ISRO's success in human-rating its CE20 engine for the Gaganyaan mission.
Though denied access to Cryogenic Engine technology, India has now developed three different versions, the latest of which has been human-rated. Only six nations in the world have this capability," Narayanan asserted, highlighting the international standards India has achieved with this cutting-edge technology.
He also identified three world records attained in this field. "We succeeded on our third attempt, making the transition from engine testing to flight in a mere 28 months—while other countries took between 42 months and 18 years. We also carried out the critical test in a record 34 days, while others took five to six months," the ISRO chief said.
Encouraging IIT Madras to aim higher, Narayanan urged the institution to strive for “a couple of Nobel Prizes.”
Meanwhile, ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), in collaboration with the Semi-Conductor Laboratory (SCL) in Chandigarh, has developed two cutting-edge 32-bit microprocessors—VIKRAM3201 and KALPANA3201—for space applications.
“VIKRAM3201 is India’s first fully indigenous 32-bit microprocessor, designed and qualified for the extreme environmental conditions of launch vehicles,” ISRO announced.
It is designed with 180nm CMOS semiconductor technology at SCL and is an improved version of the VIKRAM1601, which is a 16-bit microprocessor that has been operational in ISRO's avionics systems since 2009.
KALPANA3201 is a 32-bit SPARC V8 RISC microprocessor with the IEEE 1754 Instruction Set Architecture as its base.
As per ISRO, "The microprocessor has been designed to support open-source software toolsets in addition to an in-house simulator and IDE, and has been thoroughly tested with flight software."
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