C-DAC, Atos join hands to make supercomputers

The Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC) and Atos, a global leader in digital transformation based in France, has signed a three-year industrial contract for designing, building and installing the BullSequana, its high-performance supercomputer in India.

This contract has been awarded to Atos under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), a Rs 4,500 crore scheme spread over seven years, aimed at creating a network of over 70 high-performance supercomputing facilities for various academic and research institutions across India.

This industrial alliance, which was signed here on Friday, falls fully under the close relations and strategic partnership between the two countries in the sectors of space, civilian nuclear energy, defence, and counter-terrorism.

French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean Yves Le Drian said, "Today we have sealed an industrial alliance that contributes to strengthening our strategic partnership as two countries will be involved in together building a supercomputer grid, which is vital today for a variety of fields, such as energy transition, mobility, artificial intelligence, defence, research, and development."

Hemant Darbari, C-DAC Director General, said that buying the system is fine but C-DAC has taken up the task of building systems not only from board level but even at the chip level. "The server motherboard side we thought we should work with the partners who can do the manufacturing in India," he added.