Coming from CDAC in June, Indias fastest supercomputer
With 5-7 teraflop, computer system to help high-end research in oil exploration, space, aircraft and structural designs
and thermonuclear weapon and missile RV design
Pune, February 12: COME June and the countrys computer prowess will get a further boost with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) installing Indias fastest computer at the National Param Supercomputing Facility on the University of Pune campus. The new supercomputer will be of 5-7 teraflop, CDAC director general S Ramakrishnan said.
Currently, the fastest supercomputer Param is of one teraflop (a teraflop is a measure of computers speed) and CDAC had recently announced that it would soon be coming out with 1.5 teraflop supercomputer specifically for bioinformatics research and development.
The main purpose of the project is to make computer system useful to users for high-end research. It will be used to carry out researches in oil exploration, space, aircraft and structural designs and will also be used extensively by India Meteorological Department (IMD), CDAC director Sharad Purohit said.
The project to come out with a faster supercomputer was carried out by CDAC in collaboration with industrial partners Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), drug design firm Jubilant Biosys and Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Agency.
Purohit said the new supercomputer was remotely controlled, but after it is commissioned, it would be integrated into GARUDA. (See box)
Besides these institutes, the new supercomputer will also be used by Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Centre and Ahmedabad-based Space Application Centre, he said.
The work to develop the new supercomputer with a higher speed was done by CDACs High Performance Computing Group (HPCG). At least 100 people divided into three sub-groups - hardware, software and application - did its development in a modular way with scientists working on the existing models and improvising and innovating it, Purohit added.
WHAT IS GARUDA?
The Department of Information Technology (DIT) has funded the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to deploy the nationwide computational grid GARUDA that connects 17 cities across the country with major institutions like the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and IMD among others with an aim to bring grid networked computing to research labs and industry. One of GARUDAs most important challenges is to strike the right balance between research and the task of deploying that innovation into some of the most complex scientific and engineering endeavours currently going on. GARUDA will accelerate Indias drive to turn its substantial research investment into tangible economic benefits.
Posted by: john 2007-02-13 |