Pune, June 2, 1998

Has C-DAC shifted its focus after delivering PARAM 10000?

The previous year, 1997-98, was really an eventful year in the history of C-DAC which culminated in C-DAC delivering its second mission, namely the development of its Massively Parallel Processing technology based Supercomputer - PARAM 10000, which has the peak computing power of 100 GigaFlop i.e. 100 billion operations per second and having a scalability of One TeraFlop. Having successfully completed this mission, our focus has shifted to apply this technology in the various economic sectors within the country and outside too. This shift arose out of two reasons: first, compulsions of applying such high end technologies to our science and engineering fields because of export control by certain countries, second, the increasing computerization in the various business sectors of the economy in the country.

What are the major objectives of C-DAC’s third mission?

Realizing and recognizing the achievements of second mission, the Government has recently approved the Third Mission to be undertaken by C-DAC starting from this January for a period of about three and half years. In the third mission our focus is going to be on four main areas of work. Firstly, developing advanced technologies of both software and hardware for next generation High Performance Computing and Communication (HPCC). Secondly, to offer the National PARAM Supercomputing Facility (NPSF) which houses the PARAM 10000 machine to the users countrywide. Thirdly, develop core economic and scientific applications based on PARAM 10000 technology. And, finally, enhance the collaborative efforts with academic and research institutions to build newer applications and softwares.

What is the focus of 3rd mission?

The focus of activities in 3rd mission as stated earlier will be to work on next generation high performance computing and communication (HPCC) technologies. We propose to 'build technology to build supercomputers' by institutions. So our focus will be to develop software and hardware to enable organizations, small or large, to build their own scalable supercomputers of the size and performance needed by them using commodity components and certain critical technologies developed.

What is the need for developing HPCC technology when high end workstations are easily available?

High end computing technologies are under the export control by of some of the advanced countries because of their strategic applications. Thus, their availability is always uncertain. Further, there are a number of science and engineering problems which are compute intensive. Moreso, now, the business applications that deal with very large amount of data need to be handled with high throughput. In all these areas what one needs is a high end computing solution which can be provided by HPCC technology, not just by workstations. Therefore, there is a continuous need for us to keep working in these areas where technologies are changing rapidly so as to make us increasingly immune from any technology denials. This technology is one of 'core competence' that every nation strives to posses because of their multifarious applications.

Are you planning to develop your own microprocessor chip for PARAM?

No, we are not concentrating to develop CPU chip ourselves because this is an area of very high capital intensity and a lot of investments are required. There is already a very large investment made by multinationals, and microprocessor chips of very high performance are being brought out in the market. So why not capitalize on it. We want to concentrate on building a key technology of such high end computing machines, namely the system area network (SAN) with an ultra fast switch. A switch, which provides very low latency, provides very high speeds of switching and also is able to provide very low communication over heads. The general-purpose switches available are not always suitable for use in high end computing applications. The other area is to build hardware programmable logic libraries to map the application at the back end to get fast throughput from the system.

What is the role of National PARAM Supercomputing Facility (NPSF) in 3rd mission?

The National PARAM Supercomputing Facility (NPSF) facility houses the OpenFrame architecture PARAM 10000 machine that has a number of user terminals with Open Environment. Through this facility users can come and interact with our scientists for work on their various areas of applications and use the machine. Significantly, the machine will be accessed by them from their remote site. The users may be from research institutes or academic institutions who wish to pursue their academic and research interests. They can also develop parallel applications using this facility in their own areas of interest, such as computational fluid dynamics, finite element modeling, genetic algorithms, seismic data processing, molecular dynamics etc.

The other reason to establish NPSF is to make available the users the research facility which require high end machine of this kind. These research groups cannot obviously have and afford it at their own premises. So this facility will provide access to these research groups for being able to work on this machine. As part of this, we are building on collaborative programs with the key academic institutions in the country, such as the IITs, RECs and some Universities etc., where by using a smaller configuration of PARAM 10000 in their own premises they could develop parallel applications, and thereafter scale the application on PARAM 10000 of NPSF. In this way real life applications would be developed and even commercialized.

What are the HPCC applications identified by C-DAC to be addressed in 3rd mission?

We have planned to develop applications in three different domains. One, critical applications such as Weather Forecasting, Seismic Data Processing and applications related to Space. Secondly, Scientific and Engineering applications such as Computational fluid dynamics, Digital Library using Multilingual Multimedia technology, Biotechnology etc. Thirdly, Business and Commercial applications such as Banking, Financial Modeling, Insurance, Telecom and Electronic Governance.

Does C-DAC propose to develop its own operating infrastructure in this mission?

Yes. C-DAC has been so far operating from leased premises. At the same time we have grown to a size where these premises are now insufficient. We are already spread at five different places in the city of Pune, apart from our offices in Bangalore, Delhi and now in Hyderabad. We have been feeling the pinch from logistics of operating at multiple sites in one city, apart from it being cost – ineffective in the long run. We have therefore decided that we will build our own facility. Towards this, Government has provided us a piece of land in the city of Pune in the area of Pashan. We expect to build our infrastructure in the next two years time, to be an international class of high end R & D facility and a top class solutions provider organization in the Information Technology area in the country.