Atos takes wraps off first supercomputer under Indian govt initiative

French IT giant Atos has launched the first supercomputer under the government’s National Supercomputing Mission.

Christened ‘Param Shivay’, the supercomputer boasts of 833 teraflops of RAM and has been assembled at a cost of Rs 32.5 crore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the supercomputer at the Indian Institute of Technology-Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) in Varanasi.

According to a statement, Param Shivay is equipped with the latest processors and accelerators in the market for optimal performance and energy efficiency.

“We are proud that our BullSequana supercomputer is empowering researchers at the IIT-BHU to accelerate their digital simulation projects,” said Pierre Barnabé, chief operating officer-big data and security at Atos. 

Param Shivay is the first of several supercomputers that are slated to be installed around India as part of a three-year agreement between the Centre for Advanced Computing (CDAC) and Atos. CDAC is the supercomputing division under the Indian government’s Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

The National Supercomputing Mission, which was set up as a seven-year plan with a budget of Rs 4,500 crore, aims to create a network of over 70 supercomputer facilities for various research and academic establishments.

Param Shivay joins the ranks of a dozen or so supercomputers present in India. Last June, two Indian supercomputers -- Pratyush and Mihir, which were built for weather forecasting -- made it to the top 100 list of supercomputers around the globe. 

Pratyush was ranked at 39 while Mihir came in at 66, according to a list of top supercomputers compiled by German and American scientists.

However, India still lags behind giants such as the US and China in terms of supercomputing prowess. The two countries had 32 and 11 supercomputers in the top 100 respectively.