PARAM ANANTA Supercomputer

News Highlights 

PARAM ANANTA Supercomputer commissioned at IIT, Gandhinagar

Supercomputer established under Phase 2 of National Supercomputing Mission to Facilitate Computational Research

PARAM ANANTA Supercomputer

• Indigenously developed super infinite supercomputer capable of computing at 838 teraflops at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Gandhinagar.
• This high capacity supercomputer can do 838 lakh crore calculations per second.
• Param Anant Supercomputing Facility has been set up under Phase II of NSM. Most of the equipment used to make this system has been manufactured and assembled in the country under ‘Make in India’
• Benefits
  • It will also be useful in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Data Science, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Genome Sequencing and DNA Studies, Bioengineering, Gene Network Prediction and Detection etc.

What is a Supercomputer?

• A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance compared to a general-purpose computer. 
• Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instructions per second (MIPS). 
• Supercomputers contain tens of thousands of processors and can perform billions and trillions of calculations or computations per second.
• Since information moves quickly between processors in a supercomputer (compared to distributed computing systems) they are ideal for real-time applications.

National Supercomputing Mission

• Government of India launched National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) in 2015
• The plan was to connect R&D institutions and academic institutions in the country using a supercomputing grid with more than 70 high performance computing facilities. 
• NSM is a joint initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Department of Science and Technology (DST).
• Major objectives of the mission
  • To make India one of the world leaders in Supercomputing and to enhance India’s capability in solving grand challenge problems of national and global relevance
  • To empower scientists and researchers with state-of-the-art supercomputing facilities and enable them to conduct cutting-edge research in their respective domains
  • To minimize redundancies and duplication of efforts, and optimize investments in supercomputing
  • To attain global competitiveness and ensure self-reliance in the strategic area of supercomputing technology
• Different Phases of the Mission
  • Phase 1
    • To install 6 supercomputers with 30% value additions done in India. 
    • Focus on this phase was to create an ecosystem for assembly of system components within the country.  
  • Phase 2
    • Second phase which started in April 2021 aimed at manufacturing supercomputers in the country with an indigenous software stack.
  • Phase 3
    • Focus is on design and manufacturing in the country. 
    • It is expected to take computing speed to 45 PF. As per plan three system with 3 PF each and one system with 20 PF will be installed at national facility.
• Benefits and application
  • NSM Platform for Genomics and Drug Discovery.
  • Urban Modelling: Science Based Decision Support Framework to Address Urban Environment Issues (Meteorology, Hydrology, Air Quality).
  • Flood Early Warning and Prediction System for River Basins of India.
  • HPC Software Suite for Seismic Imaging to aid Oil and Gas Exploration.
  • MPPLAB: Telecom Network Optimization.

Way Forward

• India has made its mark in the technology landscape and has come a long way since the introduction of first supercomputer. 
• To capture further progress and compete with major global players like China and U.S, require capital as well as investments in talents. 
• India is progressing towards building its fully indigenous supercomputer and given its current pace might be able to achieve the same in the future.

Content Source – PIB