The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (Meity) Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has recently come into the spotlight. The organization has embarked on 13 new partnerships with some of India’s top academic and research and development institutions. This article will break down the potential benefits and implications of these collaborations.
Aims Behind the New Collaborations
These fresh Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) have been orchestrated with a few key goals in mind. Essentially, they aim to set up supercomputing infrastructure that includes assembly and manufacturing within India. The project is a fundamental part of the National Supercomputing Mission.
Supercomputing has an array of applications, coming in particularly handy in areas like computational biology and chemistry, big data analytics, national security, government information systems, and molecular dynamics. Paired with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), it becomes a potent tool designed to equip India with the capability to take on future challenges.
Another key objective of the MoUs is to facilitate the development of India’s indigenous hardware. That includes exascale chip design, the design and production of exascale server boards, as well as exascale interconnects and storage that incorporate silicon-photonics at C-DAC. This initiative contributes to the goal of complete self-reliance projected under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Initiative.
Exascale Computing: What it Means
Exascale computing denotes computing systems that are capable of performing at least 10^18 floating-point operations per second. On the other hand, silicon photonics signifies an emerging technology where data transfer among computer chips is facilitated by optical rays. These rays can transport a significantly larger volume of data in less time compared to electrical conductors.
National Supercomputing Mission Breakdown
India’s National Supercomputing Mission was launched in 2015. The mission was designed to link national academic and R&D institutions through a grid that comprises over 70 high-performance computing facilities. These facilities were estimated to cost around Rs. 4,500 crores over seven years.
The mission supports the government’s vision of ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives. It’s implemented by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), through C-DAC and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
The plans under this mission include increasing the number of supercomputers owned by India, creating a strong base of 20,000 skilled individuals over five years who will be ready to handle supercomputer complexities, and installing a wide supercomputing grid encompassing over 70 high-performance computing (HPC) facilities.
India’s Top Five Supercomputers
The PARAM 8000, India’s first indigenously-built supercomputer, was constructed by C-DAC in 1991. In contrast, the SUMMIT, a supercomputer based in the USA, is currently the fastest one worldwide, with the capability to deliver up to 187,659.3 TFlop/s.
