The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, which made India proud by developing India’s first supercomputer PARAM has been assigned the responsibility to create and build Make in India supercomputer under National Supercomputing Mission.
This new supercomputer has been hailed as one of the few fully indigenously built supercomputers ever created in India; and it would be unveiled next year.
As of November, 2015, India has 11 super-computers, which have been ranked as Top500 supersystems in the world. Under the Top500 list, Indian supercomputers are right now ranked at positions 96, 119, 145, 166, 251, 286, 300, 313, 316, 380 and 397.
Besides, Indian built PARAM Yuva II was last year ranked at impressive 44th position at Super Computing Conference in Denver, Colorado, under the renown Green500 List for Super Computers.
In 2013, 4 Indian supercomputers were included in the World’s fastest supercomputers as well.
However, with the introduction of National Supercomputing Mission, world wide recognition of Indian technology will soon receive a major transformation.
What Is National Supercomputing Mission?
In April last year, Government of India created an exclusive plan to build Make in India supercomputers, which would be the best in the world. A budget of Rs 4500 crore was allocated, to built a cluster of 70 supercomputers which connects various academic and research institutions of India.
This budget of Rs 4500 crore is to be spent in the next 7 years.
After India built PARAM 800 supercomputer in 1991, National Supercomputing Mission with a budget of Rs 4500 crore is the most crucial and vital Govt. sponsored plan to create a formidable workforce of supercomputers, which very countries can rival.
1st Supercomputer Under National Supercomputing Mission
This new announcement, regarding creation of the first supercomputer under National Supercomputing Mission is the first major update since last one year; and Government officials have confirmed the development.
Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Technology has said that under National Supercomputing Mission, Govt. will build 80 supercomputers, thereby spending Rs 57 crore on each unit.
The first supercomputer shall be launched by August, 2017.
As per Sharma, heating is one of the biggest challenges of creating and maintaining supercomputers. He said, “We are working on how to control heat. The cost of power to run these supercomputers alone will be around Rs 1,000 crore,”
Explaining the usages of such supersystems, he said that these 80 supercomputers would be used for “climate modeling, weather forecast, discoveries of drugs among others”
In 1980, India decided to create their own supercomputers after Cray Supercomputers were denied import of vital components, as India was under an arm embargo; and the Western world assumed that the components can be used by India for developing nuclear weapons.
Indian supercomputing power and reach has certainly travelled a long distance since 1980, and with the launch of National Supercomputing Mission, we can expect more ‘supercomputing’ fireworks.
