India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) supercomputer, Param Siddhi, has made headlines by ranking 63rd among the top 500 most potent non-distributed computer systems worldwide. But what makes this AI supercomputer so special, and why is it important? Let’s dive deeper into Param Siddhi’s specifics and its role in India’s National Supercomputing Mission.
Understanding Distributed and Non-Distributed Systems
Before delving into Param Siddhi’s details, it’s crucial to understand the difference between distributed and non-distributed systems. In computer science, a distributed system refers to a system whose components are scattered across various networked computers. These computers communicate and coordinate their actions through message-passing, aiming to achieve a common goal. Contrarily, a non-distributed or co-located system has all of its components in the same physical location.
About Param Siddhi
Param Siddhi is a High Performance Computing-Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer. It’s a part of National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), spearheaded its development. The supercomputer boasts an Rpeak of 5.267 Petaflops and 4.6 Petaflops Rmax, scores that are used to rank supercomputers based on their performance using the LINPACK Benchmark.
The LINPACK Benchmark
The LINPACK Benchmark serves as a measure of a system’s floating point computing power. Specifically, a system’s Rmax score describes its maximal achieved performance, while the Rpeak score details its theoretical peak performance. Both scores are typically represented in teraFLOPS or petaFLOPS. A petaflop denotes a computer’s ability to perform one quadrillion floating point operations per second (FLOPS).
The National Supercomputing Mission
Launched in 2015, the National Supercomputing Mission aims to empower national academic and Research and Development (R&D) institutions across the country by installing more than 70 high-performance computing facilities. The project, which was allocated Rs 4,500-crore and due to run for seven years, also includes the development of a supercomputing grid and a high-speed network known as the National Knowledge Network (NKN). This network will allow academic institutions and R&D labs to connect.
Moreover, the NSM has been fostering the development of a highly professional High Performance Computing (HPC) aware human resource, preparing them to meet the application development challenges. The mission is collaboratively implemented and steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
Objective of the National Supercomputing Mission
The fundamental goal of the NSM is to make India a global leader in supercomputing and enhance its capability in solving grand challenge problems of both national and global relevance. It aims to empower Indian scientists and researchers with top-tier supercomputing facilities, thereby enabling them to conduct cutting-edge research in their respective domains. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) recently initiated the project’s second phase, where more institutions will receive support from supercomputing facilities.
