The US chipmaker Intel is betting big on high performance computing (HPC) business in India. Be it for pharmaceutical companies or car manufacturers or even the recent Indian Mars Mission, design engineering among research institutions and industry is changing for a better tomorrow and for faster reach to the market. Intel is in talks with several academic and research institutions in the country to help them develop their own simulations in a faster mode.
As part of its growth strategy, Intel is moving away from a hardware-driven infrastructure approach to a software-defined approach. It is doing this by bringing innovative technologies in the realm of high performance computing for partners to build solutions and lay the foundation for a digital infrastructure in the country. One of the major advantages of high performance computing is the lower power cost consumption. ?The application of HPC uses lower power for designing of products,? says Sanjiv M Shah, vice-president, Software and Services Group, Intel. A classic example is ISRO?s Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) for which HPC solutions played a vital role for designing, planning and management in a cost-effective manner.
High performance computing enables researchers to do simulations faster instead of physical models and uses tools to generate design with higher quality. It uses lesser number of resources and gives direct benefit to the user. ?The demand is increasing for higher quality product and simulations always help in designing faster,? says Shah, who is also the general manager, Technical and Enterprise Computing Software Tools at the US microprocessor firm, Intel. The adoption of HPC is boosted by government spending, primarily by the department of science and technology, towards budgeting for development of computing capabilities for the whole range of high performance applications by various labs.
According to Shah, the demand for high speed computing market is driven by factors such as advancements in cloud computing, convergence of Big Data, development of new technologies and solutions for embedded processors. HPC has wide applications in various fields such as weather forecasting, molecular modeling, physical simulations, and quantum mechanics. Factors such as economic competitiveness and new product innovations are driving the demand for high performance computing market.
In fact, some of the recent developments in HPC include cloud-based approach for SMEs in the market. SMEs using high performance computers would minimise the initial investments for building infrastructure, hardware implementation and thus the high performance computing market is expected to grow exponentially in near future.
An IDC report says that pricing is a key factor which would determine the future potential of high performance computing market. Other factors such as power and cooling among others are restraining the market growth. Some of the prominent players in the high performance computing market include IBM, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, AMD, Bull, Dell, and Oracle among others.
As Shah points out, the technology landscape is evolving and areas like high performance computing, Big Data and analytics are expected to converge to offer a conducive environment to realise transformation in digital services economy. These trends of convergence in Big Data and HPC will accelerate with government of India?s digital infrastructure initiatives such as the vision of smart cities.
Specifically with regard to convergence of HPC and Big Data, Intel expects to focus beyond the traditional HPC verticals such as space, weather and life sciences to three emerging technology verticals to drive growth in 2015. Financial services, automobile and e-commerce?each of these verticals is expected to get a major boost over the next 12-24 months. The recently launched Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana for financial inclusion is expected to put tremendous pressure on the current IT infrastructure at banks and the risk management infrastructure, says Shah.
?The ability to simulate complex real world problems allows manufacturers to better predict actual behaviour before investing time in the actual manufacturing process?be it cars, airplanes, down to the airbag material and mechanism used to land a space probe on Mars. Each of these requires a high level of sophisticated HPC solutions that enables environments to do so.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi?s ?Make in India? campaign is expected to be a propeller to the manufacturing segment to adopt HPC solutions that can alter the way the design to development process works, Shah summarises.