In News:

Chennai-based Aheesa Digital Innovations, supported under the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has achieved first-pass silicon success for VIHAAN, an indigenous broadband networking System-on-Chip (SoC).

What is VIHAAN?

VIHAAN is India’s first domestically designed broadband networking SoC, developed for optical-fibre broadband and customer premises equipment (CPE). It is based on the open-standard RISC-V architecture and incorporates the indigenous 64-bit VEGA processor, developed by C-DAC.

Its primary objective is to provide high-performance, secure and sovereign networking silicon for Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployments and broadband routers, thereby reducing dependence on imported networking chips.

How does it work?

VIHAAN receives internet data through GPON/EPON fibre networks and distributes it through Gigabit Ethernet. Its VEGA core supports functions such as:

• Routing and fast packet processing
• Traffic inspection and Quality of Service (QoS)
• Firewall functions
• Secure boot and hardware root of trust
• Cryptographic/encryption functions

It also supports Aheesa Router OS (AROS), based on OpenWrt, allowing integration with routers, modems and access points.

Key Significance

The “first-pass silicon success” means that the chip functioned successfully in its first fabrication attempt, reducing redesign cycles, development time and costs. It represents progress in India’s indigenous semiconductor design-to-product ecosystem.

VIHAAN is particularly significant because its reference platform and software tools can help domestic manufacturers develop Wi-Fi routers and Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) more rapidly. Indigenous networking silicon can also reduce foreign supply-chain dependence and potential hardware-level security vulnerabilities.