SUPERCOMPUTER PARAM SIDDHI

SUPERCOMPUTER PARAM SIDDHI

WHY IN NEWS?

India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) supercomputer Param Siddhi ranked 63rd among top 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world.
Distributed computing is a field of computer science that studies distributed systems.
A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another.
The components interact with one another in order to achieve a common goal.
In a non-distributed (or co-located) system, all the parts of the system are in the same physical location. In a distributed system, parts of the system exist in separate locations.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Param Siddhi is a High Performance Computing-Artificial Intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer developed by Department of Science and Technology (DST) under National Supercomputing Mission (NSM) at Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.
The supercomputer has Rpeak of 5.267 Petaflops and 4.6 Petaflops Rmax.
In high-performance computing, Rmax and Rpeak are scores used to rank supercomputers based on their performance using the LINPACK Benchmark.
The LINPACK Benchmarks are a measure of a system’s floating point computing power.
A system’s Rmax score describes its maximal achieved performance, the Rpeak score describes its theoretical peak performance. Values for both scores are usually represented in tera-FLOPS or peta-FLOPS.
A petaflop is the ability of a computer to do one quadrillion floating point operations per second (FLOPS). Additionally, a petaflop can be measured as one thousand teraflops.

National Supercomputing Mission

The Mission envisages empowering our national academic and Research and Development (R&D) institutions spread over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising more than 70 high-performance computing facilities.
Launched in 2015, this seven-year mission was allocated Rs 4,500-crore.
These supercomputers will also be networked on the National Supercomputing grid over the National Knowledge Network (NKN).
The NKN is another programme of the government which connects academic institutions and R&D labs over a high speed network.
Academic and R&D institutions as well as key user departments/ministries would participate by using these facilities and develop applications of national relevance.
The Mission also includes development of highly professional High Performance Computing (HPC) aware human resource for meeting challenges of development of these applications.
The Mission is implemented and steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
The (C-DAC) has recently launched the second phase of this project wherein more institutions will be supported by supercomputing facilities.

WHY IN NEWS?

Recently, the fifth Scorpene class submarine of Project-75 named ‘Vagir’ has been launched at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai.

MORE ABOUT INS Vagir:

The first Vagir, a submarine from Russia, was commissioned into Indian Navy on 3rd December 1973 and was decommissioned on 7th June 2001 after almost three decades of service to the nation.
Public shipbuilder Mazagon Dock Ltd (MDL) gave a new incarnation to the submarine with the same name.
It is named after the Sand Fish, a deadly deep sea predator of the Indian Ocean.
It is a part of the six Kalvari-class submarines being built in India.
The state-of-art technology used in the submarine has ensured:
Superior stealth features such as advanced acoustic absorption techniques, low radiated noise levels, and hydro-dynamically optimised shape.
The ability to attack the enemy using precision guided weapons.
The submarine is designed to operate in all theatres of operation, showcasing interoperability with other components of a Naval Task Force.
It can launch attacks with both torpedoes and tube launched anti-ship missiles, whilst underwater or on surface.
It can undertake multifarious types of missions i.e Anti-Surface warfare, Anti-Submarine warfare, Intelligence gathering, Mine Laying, Area Surveillance, etc.

PROJECT-75:

It is a programme by the Indian Navy that entails building six Scorpene Class attack submarines.
Scorpene is a conventional powered submarine weighing 1,500 tonnes and can go up to depths of 300m.
It is given support by the Department of Defence Production (Ministry of Defence) and Indian Navy throughout its various phases of construction.
The MDL is manufacturing six Scorpene submarines with technology assistance from Naval Group of France under a USD 3.75 bn deal signed in October 2005.

OTHER SUBMARINES UNDER PROJET-75:
Two submarines, Kalvari and Khanderi, have been commissioned into the Indian Navy.
The third submarine, Karanj, is in the last phase of rigorous sea trials.
The fourth Scorpene, Vela, has commenced its sea trials.
The sixth and last submarine, Vagsheer, is being readied for boot together.