High tech competition
"Our first supercomputer, PARAM, represents the potential India has in high-tech areas, especially in terms of skilled, dynamic humanpower," says N Vittal, former secretary in the department of electronics. "But let us not forget there is a big shadow between potential and full realisation."
These skilled and dynamic professionals have made India's foray into supercomputers an exciting affair. Within three years of its inception in 1988, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) brought out PARAM, after investing 300 human-years and Rs 37 crore. The cost of an advanced Cray is as much as Rs 30 crore.
C-DAC is the only Indian body that deals exclusively in supercomputers and leads the market in the field, having sold four PARAMs abroad and 20 within the country. Other firms cater to the small, blue-chip supercomputer market or produce supercomputers for highly specialised applications.
In April, the National Aeronauticals Ltd (NAL), one of the supercomputer pioneers, came out with Flosolver, a "coarse-grained" parallel supercomputer. "It was to have been our first parallel supercomputer, but we could not get funds for it earlier," said former NAL director R Narasimha in a recent interview. Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group (ANURAG), too, brought out its Processor for Aerodynamical Computation and Evaluation in April. The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Bombay claims its BPPS is far superior to PARAM for testing aircraft design. The Centre for the Development of Telematics has also developed a parallel processing system.
Despite scepticism about market potential, C-DAC has tie-ups with Kerala State Electronics Corp, Indian Telephone Industries and Thermax. C-DAC trains personnel from these firms to make supercomputer hardware and they market it. C-DAC also markets its supercomputers and exclusively sells the software. BARC, NAL and ANURAG also have marketing tie-ups.
Partnerships with foreign firms are also in the offing. C-DAC has sold two 128-node models to the Institute of Computer Aided Design in Russia and one each to a Canadian and German university.
