India has crossed a technological threshold it has pursued for decades. The country has officially unveiled Dhruv 64, its first fully indigenous 1 GHz, 64-bit dual-core microprocessor—designed, developed, and validated entirely within India. This is not an assembled unit, not a licensed adaptation, and not a reverse-engineered design. It represents complete ownership of a modern computing core built from the ground up.
Dhruv 64 marks a defining moment in India’s sovereign computing journey. Developed by C-DAC under the Microprocessor Development Programme, with government support, the chip is built on the RISC-V open-source instruction set architecture. This choice eliminates dependence on foreign processor IP—no x86 licensing, no ARM royalties, and no external architectural control. The result is full autonomy over design, optimization, and deployment.
Clocked at 1 GHz with a 64-bit dual-core configuration, Dhruv 64 is engineered as a deployment-ready processor. It is designed to support strategic systems, industrial computing, 5G infrastructure, automotive electronics, industrial automation, IoT platforms, and embedded applications. This positions the chip not as a laboratory experiment, but as a practical processor meant for real-world use.
The significance runs deeper than performance metrics. India consumes nearly 20 percent of the world’s microprocessors, yet until now did not own the core architectures powering its critical systems. Microprocessors sit at the heart of defense platforms, telecom networks, power grids, transportation systems, healthcare equipment, satellites, data centers, and industrial control systems. Dependence on imported CPUs in these areas represents a strategic vulnerability. Owning the processor architecture means stronger security control, long-term resilience, and true technological sovereignty. Dhruv 64 directly reduces reliance on foreign silicon for critical infrastructure—self-reliance, achieved at the silicon level.
This achievement is the result of years of quiet, sustained effort. India has steadily built a lineage of indigenous processors:
– Shakti (IIT Madras, 2018) for defense and strategic applications
– Ajit (IIIT Hyderabad, 2018) for industrial and robotics use
– Vikram (ISRO, 2025) for space-grade computing
– Tejas 64 (C-DAC, 2025) for industrial automation
Dhruv 64 builds upon this foundation with expanded capability and maturity. It is the most advanced general-purpose indigenous processor India has produced so far, and it is not the endpoint. Next-generation processors, Dhanush and Dhanush Plus, are already under active development.
The decision to base Dhruv 64 on RISC-V is central to its strategic value. RISC-V is open, license-free, modular, and customizable. For India, this means freedom from IP choke points, immunity from export controls, and the ability to tailor processors for domestic requirements. It also enables a shared innovation ecosystem spanning startups, academia, and industry, aligned with the Digital India RISC-V initiative. The objective is not a single chip, but a full portfolio of indigenous processors.
Dhruv 64 is the third processor fabricated under the Tejas family, following earlier 32-bit and 64-bit variants. Its impact extends beyond government systems. It provides startups with a low-cost indigenous platform for prototyping, researchers with a modern and controllable processor, and industry with a trusted domestic alternative for embedded systems. India already accounts for a significant share of the world’s chip design talent; Dhruv 64 gives that talent something crucial—a real, homegrown processor to build on. This strengthens the design ecosystem, the semiconductor talent pipeline, and long-term national capability.
Dhruv 64 is one component of a much larger strategy. Indigenous CPUs, GPUs, and AI accelerators are all under development, signalling a shift from purchasing compute to designing compute—from systems to silicon. This mirrors the philosophy that once powered India’s supercomputing initiatives and now extends into full processor sovereignty.
The goal is not to compete directly with global giants like NVIDIA or AMD. That is not the benchmark. The real milestone is ownership. For the first time, India has a modern 64-bit processor that controls end to end—without licenses, gatekeepers, or external kill switches. From Dhruv 64 to the upcoming Dhanush series, the country is building something more enduring than a single chip: continuity.
In an era where computing power defines strategic strength, continuity defines sovereignty. This may not be the loudest technological announcement, but in the years ahead, it may be remembered as one of the most consequential.
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