India and Supercomputers

HIGH-performance supercomputers displace the reigning monarchs frequently. The latest kid on the block is IBM’s Sequoia, which has come out at the top of the list of the world’s fastest supercomputers. It delivered an impressive 16.32 petaflops per second. A petaflop is a thousand trillion operations.

To put it in perspective, Sequoia can calculate in one hour what would otherwise take 6.7 billion people working non-stop and using hand calculators 320 years to complete. The US; European nations, including Germany, France and Italy; and in Asia, Japan and China, make it regularly to the top supercomputer league, whereas India makes a guest appearance from time to time.

Indian accomplishments, starting with Param in 2007, and followed by Param Padma and Eka have all done well when pitted against the best in the world. However, unlike other nations in the Top-10 league, India does not have a sustained programme to support such high-performance computers. The nation needs to give a boost to its computer centres so that they cannot only build such powerful machines, but also use them for a variety of tasks, which would not be possible otherwise. While weather prediction needs such supercomputers, they also have military use. In fact, Sequoia has been designed to carry out simulations that will help to extend the life of ageing nuclear weapons. The good thing is that by using supercomputers, scientists avoid real-world tests.
India has come a long way since the time when nations, especially the US, banned the export of supercomputers. At one time, even some very powerful desktops were considered for ban. Now the field is wide open and India has demonstrated its capability of making and operating such machines on its own. Indian computing skills are used worldwide. It is time for the government to provide the vision, leadership and the necessary funding so that Indian supercomputers make their mark in the world.