InCore Semiconductors, a Chennai-based fabless semiconductor start-up has successfully tested and verified the functionality of a System-on-Chip (SoC) that is entirely designed and generated using its proprietary automation platform for chip design.

With its ‘SoC Generator’ platform, the start-up has effectively found a way to automate chip design, whereby chipsets can now go from concept to verifying its functional correctness in “minutes rather than months.”

InCore, backed by Peak XV Partners as investor, has also taped-out the test chip, fabricated on TSMC’s 40nm node, as proof of the platform’s silicon readiness. It is now set to be pitched to global and Indian chip design firms as a tool to automate their processes.

The prototyping of SoCs usually takes months due to the complex IP integration, interconnect design, and software readiness. But with the SoC Generator, InCore says they have compressed this timeline to mere minutes.

Today, when a chip architect works on the various iterations of the functional architecture/logic of the chip, it is mostly manual processes and the process also requires a team of 3-4 SoC engineers and takes 2-3 months’ time.

“It’s becoming increasingly important for chip designers to prototype fast as the sector gets competitive. We have been working on this platform for the last two years. Now that we have validated it, we are now talking to most large fabless semiconductor players and also start-ups to help them iterate faster and explore more architectural options,” Deepak Sahoo, Chief Marketing Officer, said.  

The chip design companies have also shown openness to adopt such a tool given their mostly legacy processes, Sahoo adds. 

The test chip from InCore’s SoC Generator

The test chip from InCore’s SoC Generator

A game-changer

“With our SoC Generator, an architect can go from idea to FPGA-validation in just 10 minutes. That’s a game-changer for anyone building silicon products,” Neel Gala, co-founder and CTO, InCore, said. Incore’s SoC Generator is complementary to the work of EDA Electronic Design Automation (EDA) who help with the physical design of the chipsets.

“With this development, we are enabling small teams with SoC design superpowers that they did not have access to previously. Especially with the increasing penetration of RISC-V [architecture], even large incumbents will want to migrate their product portfolio to RISC-V quickly,” GS Madhusudan, co-founder and CEO, InCore, said.

Globally, there are various research teams and start-ups attempting to leverage Generative AI to automate chip design. These LLM-based approaches are similar to what GenAI has done for coding but comes with its challenges of hallucinations and accuracies. “Our SoC Generator is about deterministic precision, not pattern-matching guesswork,” Gala said, speaking about these GenAI tools.

InCore Semiconductors is a Chennai-based fabless semiconductor company focused on design automation and customizable RISC-V architecture. It is a spin-out from the SHAKTI Micorprocessor program at IIT Madras.

Published on June 16, 2025