HEADLINES
JOBS
COM:PORT
POLICY POLICE
ARCHIVES

Fast, faster, fastest!

C-DAC has unveiled its swiftest number cruncher ever, the Param 10000, a 100 gigaFLOPS supercomputer.

Asia's biggest supercomputer, the 'Param 10000,' was unveiled in today at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune.

This advance is considered more important due to the ban placed by the

T O D A Y

• C-DAC's Param 10000 • Magic, Nextstep tie up • ISL's new focus • Smart card investment

Clinton administration on the export of high performance computers.

''With the development of Param 10000, India is confident of building its own high-end computers to solve mission-critical problems'', said Vijay Bhatkar, the man who led the team.

The 100-gigaflops Param 10000 has been designed using Sun's 160 Ultrasparc II processors along with C-DAC's own design communication processor and networks, Bhatkar said.

More importantly, he said, it uses C-DAC's own high performance operating and programming environment which allows its use for a range of applications including testing fibre reinforced plastics for space applications, medical informatics, war games simulations and fluid flow studies.

According to Bhatkar, the Clinton administration's ban would mean that even high-performance computers for banking and databases would require specific export clearances from the US. The Param-10000 has stymied attempt's to limit India's computational power, he said.

C-DAC was set up after the US denied India the Cray-XMP super computer. It is celebrating its 11th foundation day today.

The Param 10000 has already got its first order, from the National Informatics Centre, which will use the machine to provide solutions for remote sensing, image-processing and geographical information systems, working in tandem with India's space programme.

C-DAC exhibited the machine at Moscow's Institute for Computer-Aided Design recently. The Russian scientists were allegedly impressed and a team of them is expected in Pune shortly to negotiate the purchase of a larger version.

The Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has already decided to install the Param 10000 as part of its engineering project.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this story