PARAM PADMA SYSTEM IN INDIA & SOME APPLICATIONS USED

On april 1 2003, the param padma was dedicated to the nation at terascale supercomputing facility within the C-DAC knowledge park in bangalore. the param padma is powered by C-DAC's flexible and scalable HPCC software environment . the storage system of param padma has been designed to provide a primary storage of 5 terabytes scalable to 22 terabytes. the network centric storage architecture , based on state-of-the-art storage area network (SAN)technologies , ensure high performance, and reliable storage. it used fibre channel arbitrated loop based technology for interconnecting storage subsystems like parallel file tape servers, metadata servers,raid storage arrays and automated tape libraries, achieving an I/O performance of upto 2 gigabytes per second.

- the secondary backup storage subsystem is scalable from 10 terabytes to 100 terabytes with an automated tape library and support for DLT, SDLT and LTO ultrium tape drives. it implements a hierarchical storage management technology to optimize the demand on primary storage and effectively utilise the secondary storage.

the param padma system is also accessible by users from remote location. the latest param padma was 1000 times more powerful than the first. it took india for the first time into the ranking of the world's top 500 supercomputers being ranked at 171st.

- in a span of 15 years, C-DAC had built and delivered four generations of supercomputing system, platforms and almost 100 of these machines were in active use in india as wellas in russia, canada, germany and singapore. after U.S.and japan a india was the only country to have built supercomputers for international use.

Some Scientific Applications on Param Padma Systems in India :
1. Bioinformatics :
- expertise in analyzing large sequence database using popular tools like FASTA, BLAST, smith-waterman for studying the function of genes and proteins to identify drug targets.
- realistic simulations of large biomolecular using molecular modeling codes like AMBER, CHARMM and GROMACS.
- research initiatives aimed at buildingat utilising the right combination of genomics, bioinformatics and high performance computing power for better health care.

2. Computational Structural Mechanics :
- specialised software for structural analysis, tuned foe high-end parallel architecture modelling and visualization tools.
- FEMCOMP , a stress analysis package for fibre reinforced composite structure based on higher-order shear deformation theory.
- INTEGRA , a platform independent , modelling and visualization package for structural and fluid mechanics.
- NONLIN , a collaborative project software based on domain decomposition.

3. Computational Atmospheric Science :
- medium range 3-10 days weather forecasts and long range ~100 years climate forecasts.
- pre-processors to ingest the indian meteorological data into the MM5 molleing system for regional weather forecasts.
- climate system model consisting of computationally intensive components: atmosphere model, ocean model, land model, sea-scale, sea-ice model, and coupler.
-world ocean circulation model based on the system of primitive equations for momentum, stream function, heat and salinity.

4. Seismic Data Processing :
- WAVES, a paralled seismic modelling and migration package for seismic data processing in oil and natural gas exploration.

5. Other applicaitons :
- high precision 2-D and 3-D migration and modelling algorithms.
- 2-D, 3-D migration codes using wavelets.

6. Evolutionary Computing :
- parallel genetic algorithms based methodologies for protein structure prediciton and multiple sequence alignment.
- financial modelling for analyzing stock market trends.
- internal combustion engine design optimization by modelling and simultion of fuel flow characteristics.
- a parallel genetic algorithms library for general optimization problems.

7. computing Chemistry:.
- INDMOL, a package developed for electric structure and molecular properties based on theoretical quantum chemistry.
- MP2 level calculations using GAMESS with much less turn around time.
- large-scale calculations of electronic structure & properties of molecules.
- ab initio molecular dynamics simulations software developed and optimized.

8. Computational Fluid Dynamics :
- simulation of external and internal flows. finite volume code for re-entry vehicle at hypersonic flows.
- general purpose navier stokes code for large simulations.