Silicon Graphics Firm In Talks For Sale Of Cray Supercomputers

Cray Research Inc, now owned by Silicon Graphics, has returned from near bankruptcy with a range of compact supercomputers which are way ahead in computing power than the famous XMP and YMP series marketed eight years ago.

In 1992, the US government had stopped the sale of a YMP-24 machine at the last minute on the ground that the Bangalore-based IISC was involved in the Agni missile programme.

The machine for which negotiations are currently being held with IISC is a $1 million J-Series supercomputer in the gigaflops computing range whereas the 5 million YMP-24 was in the Megaflops range.

Talks are at an early stage, said a source in Silicon Graphics.

The machine is to be installed in IISCs Supercomputer Research & Development Centre for high-end scientific applications like mathemetical modelling and fluid dynamics.

The likely Cray sale has put a question mark on the success of the PARAM range of parallel supercomputers.

PARAM, branded as an indigenous victory over the US technology denial regime, is yet to find a favourable response among high-end users.

On the previous occasion, IISC had set up a Rs 5 crore facility for housing the Cray - with atttributes like high efficiency airconditioning and a close circuit TV to keep a watch on its use.

Under the then Indo-US deal, IISC was to use the machine for a specified list of applications only.

The US government should not object to the present sale as the machines computing power is well within the 7000 Composite Theoretical Performance (CTP) limit set by the US government for supercomputer exports.

In the days of the Cray YMP-24, it used to be 500 CTP.

Many desktop machines now deliver as much power as supercomputers did barely eight years ago.

If IISC had the Cray YMP-24 now, it would have become redundant.

Silicon Graphics sources said the talks with IISC are the result of the companys conscious decision to tap Indias huge scientific applications market.

We have a range of machines for applications like high speed number crunching, modelling, simulation and design. Indias rapidly-growing scientific establishment, both in the public and private sector, needs such machines, said the source.

Silicon Graphics has sold high capacity computers through its Indian partners to several research institutions like the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the National Aeronautics Laboratory and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Art and Culture.

We are particularly keen on the in-house R&D facilities in the private sector, said the source from Silicon Graphics.

We are talking to a number of companies in the automobiles and components sectors on the sale of our machines.