Topics covered:
- Awareness in the field of IT.
National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)
What to study?
For Prelims and Mains: NSM- objectives, significance and challenges ahead.
Context: French IT services firm Atos has won a three-year contract to build the first phase of supercomputers under India’s Rs 4,500-crore National Supercomputing Mission (NSM).
National Supercomputing Mission (NSM):
The Mission envisages empowering national academic and R&D institutions spread over the country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 high-performance computing facilities.
- 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.
- The Mission includes development of highly professional High Performance Computing (HPC) aware human resource for meeting challenges of development of these applications.
- India looks forward to create a cluster of machines for weather forecasting, drug discovery and data mining.
Agencies involved:
- The Mission would be implemented and steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) over a period of seven years.
- The tender to build these high performance computers (HPC) had been floated by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
- Atos would be deploying its energy efficient Direct Liquid Cooled Bull Sequana supercomputers in India.
Background:
World-wide supercomputing facilities have enabled countries in their S&T capabilities in areas such as designing vehicles, aeroplanes, massive structures like high rise buildings and bridges, infrastructure, discovery of new life saving drugs, discovery and extraction of new energy sources including oil, natural gas etc.
Over the years, supercomputers have benefitted mankind in several ways. Weather prediction has reached accuracy of forecast as well as real time tracking of natural phenomenon. Timely warning of cyclones in the recent past have saved many lives and property. The Mission aims to further such capabilities beyond current levels.
Sources: et.
