New supercomputer to put CSIR in high-speed data processing league

CSIR is set to launch its fastest supercomputer at India's first ever big data science institute in Bangalore later this month marking its entry into the new field of data intensive scientific discovery.

The supercomputer will have a speed of 360 tera flops, making it the fourth fastest machine in the country and will be housed in the CSIR Fourth Paradigm Institute (CSIR-4PI).

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has decided to reposition its Bangalore-based Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (CMMACS) to deal with data intensive scientific discovery, which has emerged as the fourth paradigm of science.

CSIR Director General Samir Brahmachari met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week to invite him to launch the new institute.

Science has changed over the years from the first paradigm of discovery through observation of nature (empirical), to the development of generalised principles and formulation of models (theoretical), which was the second paradigm. The third paradigm of science was making discoveries through modelling and simulation of complex natural and engineering processes, while the fourth paradigm unifies theory, experiment and simulation.

Brahmachari said CSIR has identified five domain areas - earth system sciences, medical informatics, biomedical informatics, chemical sciences and physical sciences.

The supercomputer based in the Bangalore-based 4PI will form the backbone of the new venture which will connect CSIR laboratories located in Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Srinagar, Chennai andChandigarh.

Each of the laboratories will have computing facilities between 10 and 50 tera flop capacity will be linked to the supercomputer using the National Knowledge Network thus connecting 200 scientists and over 1,000 students in the identified domain areas.