AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform (AIRAWAT)

Why in news?

• Recently, International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) took place in Germany.
• In that, among the Top 500 Global Supercomputing List, the AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune has ranked 75th in the world.

About AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform (AIRAWAT):

• The AIRAWAT is currently funded by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and implemented by C-DAC, Pune.  
• The system is installed under National Program on AI by the Government.
• Capacity:
  • The AIRAWAT PoC of 200 AI Petaflops integrated with PARAM Siddhi – AI of 210 AI Petaflops gives a total peak compute of 410 AI Petaflops Mixed Precision and sustained compute capacity of 8.5 Petaflops (Rmax) Double Precision.
• Benefits:
  • The deployment of AIRAWAT will empower academia, research labs, the scientific community, industry, and startups to develop indigenous AI-enabled products and solutions, particularly for addressing India-specific challenges. This AI infrastructure will enable to achieve the vision envisaged under National Program on AI (NPAI).
• Future of AIRAWAT:
  • MEITY envisions scaling AIRAWAT to a computing capacity of 1,000 AI Petaflops to meet the current AI computational requirements.

About India’s Super Computing Capability:

• Currently, India’s most powerful, civilian supercomputers — Pratyush and Mihir — with a combined capacity of 6.8 petaflops are housed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida, respectively.
• Both these organisations are affiliated to the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).

Add ons:

• The fastest high-performance computing system in the world is currently the Frontier-Cray system at Oakridge National Laboratory, United States.
• This has a peak speed of one exa-flop (or about 1,000 petaflops).

PRACTICE QUESTION:

‘AIRAWAT’, sometimes seen in news, is a:

(a) Communication satellite

(b) Cyber-security architecture

(c) Supercomputer

(d) None of the above

Answer