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Param Rudra is a new HPC system located in India. This was installed by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, on September 26, 2024. It is named after the fierce avatar of Lord Shiva. It is yet another key revolution in India's technological advancements as part of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) aimed at enhancing the country's research and development landscape.
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Key Features of Param Rudra
Processing Power: The Param Rudra supercomputers are designed to perform intensive numerical computations and simulations at extremely fast speeds. It provides a 1 petaflop processing capacity, which means that much data can be processed efficiently.
Installations Sites: Three installations of Param Rudra have been done in Pune, Delhi, and Kolkata. Each installation is so set up in such a manner that the sites are configured to work on various research capabilities:
Pune: The Giant Metre Radio Telescope (GMRT) will use Param Rudra to study Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and other astronomical phenomena.
Delhi: The Inter-University Accelerator Centre will focus on strengthening research in material science and atomic physics.
Kolkata: The S.N. Bose Centre will focus on advanced studies in physics, cosmology, and earth sciences.
Impact on Research and Development
The introduction of Param Rudra is expected to revolutionize various fields:
Astronomy: Better computation that can be devoted to GMRT will enhance the ability of scientists to pay more detailed attention to cosmic phenomena, for instance, making our comprehension of the universe better.
Material Science and Physics: With this supercomputer, really pioneering work will be done in these two critical areas that all together can bring about a scientific breakthrough, as scientists say.
Weather and Climate Research: Param Rudra has been accompanied by two more HPC systems names Arka and Arunika, which have specifically been designed for weather forecasting. The Arka and Arunika aimed at increasing the predictability of severe weather events to benefit agriculture and disaster management to a large extent.
Significance for India:
The launch of Param Rudra is a turning point in India's progress to be an independent country in advanced computing technology. It supports the concept of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" and has been aligned with the vision of the government of importance on indigenous technology development that would help in achieving national targets. With its enhanced computing ability, India will face a position that no nation has so far in world scientific research and innovations.
Comparison with Global Supercomputers
Feature | Param Rudra | Top Global Supercomputers (e.g., Fugaku, Summit) |
Processing Speed | 1 petaflop | Fugaku: 442 petaflops; Summit: 200 petaflops |
Architecture | Indigenously developed | Fugaku: Fujitsu A64FX; Summit: IBM Power9 |
Primary Use Cases | Climate modelling, astrophysics | Fugaku: COVID-19 research, AI; Summit: AI, genomics |
Memory | 35 terabytes | Fugaku: 7.6 million cores; Summit: 2.4 million cores |
Cost | Approximately ₹130 crore (~$16 million) | Fugaku: ~$1 billion; Summit: ~$200 million |
Deployment Year | 2024 | Fugaku: 2020; Summit: 2018 |
Key Differences
Processing Capability: While Param Rudra at 1 petaflop is a feather in the cap for India, it lags far behind the Fugaku and Summit type of leadership systems with thousands of petaflops. The difference points out how advanced the computational power is in leading global systems.
Architecture and Design: In this, Param Rudra employs a combination of Intel CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs. Therefore, it has more domestically developed technology. Compared with that, the global leader Fugaku utilized leading-edge architectures exclusively targeted toward high efficiency and performance across wide-ranging applications.
Cost Effectiveness: Param Rudra is relatively inexpensive compared to the international versions. With this cost-effectiveness, India can build several systems toward its goal of self-sufficiency in supercomputing technology.
Research Focus: Param Rudra is optimally placed for specific types of research to be done in India, like the Giant Metre Radio Telescope and the Inter-University Accelerator Centre. In contrast, leading supercomputers support a much broader range of applications extensive AI research and large-scale simulations across various scientific disciplines.
Param Rudra is the first notch-up for India in the recent wave of supercomputing that would advance local research capabilities. It is a measure of potential growth in Indian technology, and more importantly, a harbinger to match up with top HPC players worldwide compared to the topmost supercomputers of the world.
