Cyient, which is a technology solutions company, announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIT Hyderabad and WiSig Network to commence the volume production of homegrown architected and designed chip – the Koala NB-IoT SoC (Narrowband-Internet of Things System-on-Chip).

“The Memorandum of Understanding signed between them is aligned with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)’s goals of building a vibrant semiconductor design and innovation ecosystem to enable the emergence of India as a global hub for electronics manufacturing and design,” Cyient said in a media statement.

The statement also mentioned that IITH and WiSig developed the Koala chip while Cyient enabled the integrated circuit (IC) design for this project.

The volume production of Koala chip will include the development of a package, production test solution suited for volume production, organization of silicon fabrication, volume testing of the IC, and the management of supplying the chip.

NB-IoT is a 5G massive Machine-Type-Communication (MTC) technology that enables low-bit rate IoT applications with long-range and extends device battery life by up to 10 years. Smart meters, machine-to-machine connectivity, Industry 4.0, multi-sensor connectivity, asset tracking, digital healthcare, and other applications will benefit by using this NB-IoT chip.

“We started with enabling the design of India's first indigenously developed NB-IoT SoC chip with partners IIT- H and WiSig Networks. We are excited to join hands with them toward commercializing this 5G chip in the country,” said Krishna Bodanapu, MD and CEO, Cyient.

"I thank DoT and MEITY for enabling the design of an indigenously developed chip to reach the mass production stage. This is a major milestone in India's 5G Fabless Chip Design space journey,” said B.S. Murty, Director, IITH.