Indian supercomputers Pratyush, Mihir enter global top 100 list

Indian supercomputers Pratyush and Mihir, which were built for weather forecasting, have made it to a top 100 list globally, indicating the country's growing technological prowess.

Pratyush was ranked 39 while Mihir was placed 66, according to the Top500 list of supercomputers compiled by American and German scientists.

India's highest ranking earlier was 228 in the November 2017 list of Top500.

Pratyush was set up at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, in January. It is used to improve weather predictions. Mihir is operational at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast in Noida.

In the June list, India has three more supercomputers in the top 500 list. These are at 206, 327 and 496 ranks, according to the list. The supercomputer at the 496th rank is also located at the Pune institute while the one at the 327th spot is with the Indian Institute of Science. The fifth supercomputer belongs to a software company.

Still, India has a long way to go. According to June’s edition of the Top500 list, the US has reclaimed its top slot after lagging behind China for five years. The US has six supercomputers in the top 10 while China has two. In the top 100, the US has 32 supercomputers and China 11.

The US recaptured the top spot this year with its IBM-built machine called Summit, which is housed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The Summit recorded a performance of 122.3 petaflops.

In comparison, Pratyush recorded a performance of 3.7 petaflops and Mihir 2.8 petaflops.