Dec/05/2011

India loses ground in supercomputing

Only two supercomputers from the country have made it to TOP500 list

India's presence in a reputed global list of the world's fastest 500 supercomputers has been dwindling in recent years, with just two from the country finding a place in the latest list released in November.

The annual TOP500 list, updated in June and November, ranks the supercomputers based on their speed.

In the list that is dominated by the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, India has mostly been relegated to the background in recent years.

The two supercomputers from India belong to Tata's Computational Research Laboratories and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

In comparison, four Indian systems found a place in the November 2010 list: in addition to the two already mentioned, those of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the Indian government made it to the top 500.

Though the Indian Space Research Organisation had unveiled a supercomputer in May, said to be India's fastest in terms of theoretical peak performance, it has not been featured in the list, owing to a technicality.

It was in 2006 that the maximum number of supercomputers from India made to the list — 11 in June and 10 in November. Then, India ranked sixth in terms of supercomputing power; this November, it was placed fifth from the bottom in a list of 27 countries.

India's decline may mean that the kind of investments others, especially the Asian countries, are making in high performance computing (HPC) is not made in the country, says Horst Gietl, executive consultant, International Supercomputing Conference.

HPC's role

HPC plays an important role in exploring challenging problems requiring huge volumes of computation and data in such domains as climate modelling, bioinformatics, cosmology and molecular modelling, explains Sathish Vadhiyar, associate professor, Supercomputer Education and Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The number of supercomputers in a country reflected the diversity, significance and magnitude of such problem-solving efforts. “India has definitely lost ground in the supercomputing domain, compared with China.”

This could be attributed to the lack of co-ordinated and integrated efforts between HPC systems researchers and application domain experts in exploring problems of large sizes on a very large number of processors. As a result, there were not enough domain experts interested in scaling their applications to use a large number of processors, and HPC scientists who could help to develop a comprehensive system software. However, the government had taken initiatives to address this situation, which could improve in the near future, he added.

In the world of supercomputing, power is associated with the number of calculations that could be performed a second by a machine. A teraflop equals one trillion floating point operations a second, and a petaflop, a 1000 trillion floating point operations a second.

The K Computer in Japan's RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science, Kobe, with a speed of 10.5 petaflops, has been ranked first in the November list. In comparison, the Tata supercomputer, ranked 85th, has a maximum computational speed of 132.8 teraflops.

Sixteen supercomputers, including those that have found a place in the list, were featured in the June 2011 version of a bi-annual Indian list Dr. Vadhiyar has been preparing in recent years. (The ISRO supercomputer has been categorised separately in this list).

In the first version of this Indian list released in November 2008, 11 supercomputers were selected, with the entry barrier for being counted set at 900 gigaflops. In the list for June this year, the barrier was set at 3.11 teraflops.

So, does speed matter much more than numbers in the supercomputing domain? It is one indicator of the supercomputing resources at the disposal of a country. The more HPC research is done, the greater is the need for faster computers, says Dr. Gietl.

“RV, father of industrialisation in Tamil Nadu”

Apart from the rich tributes, there were some rare insights and a few warm anecdotes as some of Chennai's finest remembered the former President, R. Venkataraman, on the occasion of his birth centenary celebrations here on Sunday.

The man who took the long road from Rajamadam village in Thanjavur to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to become India's eighth President was variously described by speakers as the “Father of Industrialisation” in Tamil Nadu, distinguished parliamentarian, gracious statesman and humanist to the core.

Tamil Nadu Governor K. Rosaiah, who was the chief guest, said it was important that “we not only remember him but also should enable the young generation to know about him, imbibe his values and emulate him as a role model.”

As much as he served as an example of courtesy, cordiality and equable temper through his life, Venkataraman also dealt with issues and persons around him in a straightforward and open-minded manner. Beneath the multi-faceted personality of this grassroots politician, who had sound political sense in understanding the needs of the people ran the thread of humane values, probity and dedication, Mr. Rosaiah said.

Making a rare departure from his written speech, the Governor recalled an occasion when he called on Venkataraman at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Based on his experience of having lost an election to a greenhorn in a constituency that he had served well, Venkataraman advised him that such events were the stuff of politics and that one had to look beyond nursing a constituency, Mr. Rosaiah said.

The former Governor of West Bengal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, said Venkataraman possessed the kinds of courage required for a politician to approach statesmanship — courage to be unpopular with the popular, be tough with the strong, embrace defeat, own a mistake and the courage to be content in retirement.

Mr. Gandhi said he felt hollowed out in the absence of more people like “RV” who assumed power without ego, left office without regret and lived without illusions, to guide us in these troubled times.

The former Supreme Court judge, S. Mohan, said well-wishers should get together to erect a statue in Venkataraman's honour.

Era Sezhiyan, former parliamentarian, who shared childhood reminiscences — both went to the same school in Pattukottai — said Venkataraman was a staunch Congressman and a democrat who observed every rule. Even when their paths crossed in their political careers when he was in the Opposition and Venkataraman occupied the treasury bench, they would still share constructive dialogue, unlike Parliament of these days, he said.

N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, said a distinguishing feature of R. Venkataraman was the extreme grace, maturity and perspective he brought to his response to critical newspaper coverage about the government which is in sharp contrast to the intolerance of dissent that is encountered these days. A good biography of this towering figure from south India who served public life with distinction for long was overdue, Mr. Ram said.

S. S. Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya, deemed it a rare privilege to have offered ophthalmologic services, as honorary surgeon to the President, to R. Venkataraman, who also had a humorous trait.

Padma Subrahmanyam, president, Nrithyodaya, remembered him as a great patron of arts who, as President, had thrown open the gates of the Rashtrapati Bhavan to dancers and musicians.

Vyjayantimala Bali, dancer and former Congress MP, presented excerpts from her autobiography “Bonding” to recall how an invitation from the President to perform for a show by the ICCR was instrumental in getting her back to the stage when she was in mourning after the death of her spouse.

M.A.M. Ramaswamy, convener, celebration committee and committee of hosts, described RV as a role model for anyone who wanted to come up in life.

K.V. Kanakambaram, president of the Guindy Industrial Manufacturers Association, said the Guindy Estate was celebrating the former President's contribution to industrialisation in its own way.

Padma Venkataraman said the family was indeed overwhelmed by the show of affection and reverence.

Messi, Ronaldo nominated for top FIFA award

Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez will be up against Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo for the FIFA World Player of the Year award.

The three Ballon d’Or finalists were named on Monday from 23 nominees. Messi beat Barcelona teammates Andres Iniesta and Xavi to win last year.

Messi also won the award two years ago when France Football magazine chose the best player in Europe.

The Ballon d’Or is now merged with FIFA’s Player of the Year award to create one trophy. Messi and Ronaldo have already scored 17 league goals this season. They face each other in the Spanish league on Saturday.

The winner will be announced on January 9 in Zurich, Switzerland.