September - 2010 issue > In Focus

By si Team

Taking yet another step forward in the field of science and technology, India has launched its latest supercomputer ‘Annapurna’ at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc) in Chennai.

Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee unveiled the country’s seventh fastest high-performance computation (HPC) cluster having 1.5 Tera Byte (TB) memory and 30 TB storage space cluster capacity. He lauded the technical team behind the effort for creating the super computer in a completely non-commercial domain. U.S. based Silicon Graphics International, a manufacturer of computer hardware and software, including high-performance computing solutions, helped with Annapurna. According to Banerjee, complex issues ranging from biological applications and others could not have been approached in the absence of a supercomputer. Among broad-based scientific institutions in India, the Annapurna cluster is the third fastest, ranking below that installed at IISc Bangalore and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.

However, it is at par with the other supercomputers such as Vindhya, Aravalli and Kabru. The Garuda grid, India’s national computing grid that connects 45 institutes in India uses IMSc’s Kabru. The device will be used to boost academic research in simulations and numerical calculations in the areas of statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics among others.

Banerjee, during the inauguration said that technological embargoes restricted development and different institutes were tasked with overcoming limitations on processors.

If you have more query about magazine please send mail to

Feb 12	Jan 12	Dec 11	Nov 11