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India's First Commercial Supercomputer Running Linux 84

Posted by Roblimo from the inevitable-advances dept.
RuntimeError writes "It says here in Times of India that a gentleman in Bangalore, India has created the country's first commercial supercomputer based on the Linux operating system."
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India's First Commercial Supercomputer Runs Linux More

India's First Commercial Supercomputer Runs Linux

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  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • This is great news!

    One area where Linux really can make a change is for computing in developing countries. Ok, this was a supercomputer, and the main cost here is probably hardware related.

    However, in the more general case Linux has a real advantage because it is free. First, buying a commercial OS with source code is likely to be VERY expensive. Linux, free in both senses of the word, on the other hand, comes with the complete source ready for tweaking.

    Another good thing about Linux is that it runs on cheap hardware, which I would believe to be good for developing countries. You'd get a lot of 486:s for the price of one Athlon-blabla mhz computer.

    So hopefully Linux will make the world smaller and more accessible for people without the material wealth of western europe / USA.

    // Simon Kågström
  • I'm pretty sure . .they're using . . the one the only . .often imitated, never duplicated . .the hostess with the mostess . .the king of all clients . .master of all domains . .it's all the buzz on wall street . .soon to go IPO . .Patent Pend. . . wait for it:

    Beowulf Cluster!
    _________________________

  • 61%? (Score:2)

    by ilkahn ( 6642 )
    If you look at peacock systems [peacocksys.com] website, you will see a quote that says that linux has a 61% server market share in the united states... while I am a big linux advocate and all, where the hell is he getting this number? while at the company I work (and the companies where most of my friends work) most of the servers have been turned into linux boxen, i know for a fact that the rest of the not quite so enlightened world hasn't made the switch over to linux land... ideas on where this came from?
  • This is an interesting number. Being over half changes things a lot. It makes Linux the majority, instead of the minority. Surley there must be some HTTP log studies done?
    _________________________
  • "... operates on the easy-to-learn Linux technology."



    "THERE ARE BETTER THINGS IN THE WORLD THAN ALCOHOL, ALBERT"-Death
  • Jeez, I hope that doesn't get moderated up. Let me summarize the above poster:

    Blah Blah Blah Linux Rulez Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

    And the entire premise was ridiculous too. "Developing Countries" -- I'd hardly call India's technical side "developing". C'mon, they built a supercomputer, give them some credit. And Linux's price really does not come into play when you're already spending that much money. Supercomputing is primarily a hardware issue.

    Yes, it's neat that they used Linux, but I'm so sick of hearing all these "Yay Linux" posts. Especially the ones saying how wonderful it is to run Linux on a 486. Have you guys ever run X on a 486? It could be worse, but seriously, it's not exactly a speedy solution.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • If you go to their website peacock [peacocksys.com] you will notice it does not say: "linux currently has 61% of the webserver market" it says that linux has 61% of the server market. Those are two completely different things, even if linux were to have 61% of the webserver market, I know that in my office we have 4 machines that aren't dedicated webservers to the one dedicated webserver... so that number wouldn't mean all that much!

    their claim of 61% would mean that a large portion of the database servers, telephony servers, print servers, application servers, industrial control servers, would run linux! while I don't know for a fact that they don't, my guess is that Linux is nowhere near that number! i would love to be proven wrong, anyone have numbers to show me that I have made a mistake?
  • No way is that correct. First, Linux doesn't even have that much market share in the Unix category. It's coming up strong, but to say that, of all servers, Linux is running 61% is just ridiculous. They've got their facts wrong.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • Try making a supercomputer using NT, i'm sure using Linux would be *a lot* easier, i find NT much harder to set up properly then Linux (without reading big fat books).
  • China's name is awesome, but I don't see any reason to think that India (as a country) would need to have their own specialized distro. I imagine China did that for reasons of pride in their own geeks.

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • Linux avoids US export restrictions (Score:4)

    by gbnewby ( 74175 ) on Saturday January 08, 2000 @05:38AM (#1391825) Homepage
    What's cool about Beowulf is that it lets non-US countries have access to supercomputers that they otherwise could not buy from the US. There are still significant restrictions in place that prevent many companies and governments outside of the US from buying high-end computers.

    A /. article last year mentioned that Clinton had raised the limit on what's considered a supercomputer (so today's standard microprocessors can be sold), but it's still a problem.

    Yes, Japanense companies (Fujitsu, Hitachi) make some very good supercomputers too. But my point is that places that want to have world-class supercomputers (at least the type that Beowulf offers) can now do so without needing to dance with US commerce restrictions to buy from SGI/CRAY, IBM, Compaq/Digital or HP.

    For the Top 500 supercomputers in the world, see top500.org [top500.org].
  • "What Jayachandra has developed with help of a band of committed computer professionals -- who have had extensive Linux training in the US for about 10 years -- operates on the easy-to-learn Linux technology."

    10 years of "extensive Linux training" huh? 10 YEARS?!? They've also got 12 years of programming skills with Java, and 9 years experence using Windows 2000....

    And, how come India has the "easy-to-learn Linux technology", but i'm stuck with this non-so-easy distrubution....

    (OK, I'll stop now, this is humour though, don't get too upset :)
  • If I get this right, 10 Lakh Rs == 100,000 Rs ~= $2300. So how powerful is this machine touted as a supercomputer? Anyone see a product pointer with further specifications?

  • NRI != National Research Institute (Score:4)

    by rsidd ( 6328 ) on Saturday January 08, 2000 @05:46AM (#1391830)
    In India, NRI is a common abbreviation for "Non Resident Indian"
    -- ie an Indian citizen who lives abroad. This gaffe is
    hilarious. If you don't know, ask.


    I believe there are some Beowulfs running in some research
    institute. This guy has slapped together some boxes and
    plans to sell them. Maybe he'll do well, maybe not.

  • Cool, all they need now is a welfare state.
    I hope they spend some of the money they save on education and sanitation.
    Even if you managed to get a 386 and VGA monitor, built your desk out of mud you've still got a long wait until you can afford to have electric installed.
    As for security for some places the first item on the tick list is a front door never mind a firewall!


    .oO0Oo.

  • maybe they meant 10 years of combined linux training? a lot of consulting firms that I know here in the states will say that, they will say: "we have over 100 years of combined database experience" well, let's face it, no one could have 100 years of database experience but 20 guys with 5 years of experience... either that or they have some issues with the truth... which i brought up in this [slashdot.org] comment...
  • Is it Indias first supercomputer, which runs linux or Indias first supercomputer to run linux. The /. title is and working in the article is not clear and could be misleading.

  • Big surprise (Score:4)

    by heroine ( 1220 ) on Saturday January 08, 2000 @05:55AM (#1391834) Homepage
    Well when Beowolf was temporarily banned in 1998 for fear of it being used to develop nuclear weapons in India, who would have thought that 2 years later we'd be reading about it in a positive article. NASA even deleted the home page for beowolf and we had a college student ftp server uprising much like the DVD uprising of 1999. It's good to see that what was once a security threat is now a triumph. Or maybe the columnist wasn't around in 1998.

  • Deja-vu? (Score:1)

    by pen ( 7191 )
    Here's something similar: http://slashdot.org/articles/99/ 03/10/109215.shtml [slashdot.org]

    --

  • From the Slashdot title, I would definitely assume that it is really India's first supercomputer. The article isn't very clear, IIRC.

    --

  • You're missing a 0.

    One lakh is 100,000 Rupees. So 10 Lakh is $23,000 US.

    Thats enough to build a fairly impressive Beowulf cluster.
  • I am sure the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in India came up with some supercomputers called 'Param's a few years back when the US Govt denied access to Crays. This is surely not the first indian supercomputer.
  • First NRI!= National Reserach Insititute. NRI= Non-Resident Indian ! :0

    Second .. "India's First Commercial Supercomputer Runs Linux" is a misleading headline ! "Peacock" and "Maya" is NOT the first commercial supercomputer built by India. India had built 'Param' when India was denied access to Cray computers. It is an establised fact among the supercomputing people that 'Param' is giving Cray a real run for the money. Refer http://www.cdac.org.in/ for more details on 'Param'

    Yup, peacock and Maya is definetely the first linux-based supercomputer that Indian has built.

  • That would mean that the /. article title would be misleading. Carefull how you say it guys!

  • Re:Ok.. some clarifications (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It is an establised fact among the supercomputing people that 'Param' is giving Cray a real run for the money.

    If you look carefully at the details, CDAC actually struck a deal with Sun. The Param is essentially a Sun Beowulf cluster using Sun AXI's and Ultrasparcs...so much for US export restrictions... :)

  • ROTFL (Score:2)

    by Wah ( 30840 )
    ``We bought some of the components on Subedar Chatram Road,'' he says, half in jest.

    hahaha,ha, er, he, um...

    Ah the joys of the foreign (to me) press, these folks obviously don't know the power of the word Beowulf. Not one mention in the whole story AND it would finally be on-topic. Anybody around here mention Total Wo, err, keep hacking.
  • Industry sources say the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is making a supercomputer in which research organisations of the defence ministry are showing a keen interest.

    Just a small comment in the article, that just doesn't make me happy, espescially considering the recent tensions between India and Pakistan.

    Considering the rivalry between the two countries, we just have to wait for the announcement that Pakistan has a slightly better super-computer. But seriously, with knowledge spreading I expect that very soon we will see several 'third world' countries operating low-cost supercomputers for good and bad.

  • I think the price of developing software for a supercomputer could be quite high, and using Linux could potentially be a LOT cheaper than developing an entierly own OS, or buying SGIs stuff..

    X isnt fast on a 486, but what GUI is? WinNT is certainly NOT faster than X is.

    // Simon
  • This could very easily become a "negative" article. All you need is a bit of FUD, Linux, Nukes, and Eastern Countries.
  • We are working on reaching Linux to the 90% of the population who do not speak or understand English. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The Indian Linux Project [freeos.com]
  • So unless they are running exteremely parallizable
    problems what good is it?

  • I just don't think that the nation of India would make that pride a point of re-inventing something that already works just fine. There may be distros from India, but a federally funded one?

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • Re:Linux and developing countries (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Foogle, you suck balls. The OS cost for a supercomputer is astronomical and besides most Oses are proprietarily bound to specific hardware ie Cray etc.

  • PARAM and Bewoulf (Score:3)

    by azeem_k ( 39625 ) on Saturday January 08, 2000 @07:50AM (#1391855)
    I believe this guy is just trying to get onto the linux bandwagon. Bewoulf clusters have been done before in India in research institutes like IISc Bangalore and India's PARAM computers based on a self-developed OS and Sun Sparc CPUs and have been exported by India to several other countries including Russia and in Europe. The overuse of hyperbole in the article suggests that the writer of the article is not too-computer literate. What this guy is just going to do is build Bewoulf clusters and sell them just like VA Linux does. He has done a very good job of getting the publicity and marketing though.
  • They picked up bad habits learning those 12 years of Java - that's why they're having problems. Although I gotta wonder why it took 12 years to figure out what takes most people six months (and then another year trying to bury the painful memories..). Maybe they're really slow? Let's hope the system they built is faster than they are.. or it'll take about an eon to compile the kernel...
  • The linked article would lead me to believe that this is the first on to run linux, not the first one ever.

    However the /. title would lead you to believe the other thing.

    (somebody take away roblimo's crack ok?)
  • Well, Linux isn't exactly Unix, but perhaps what they mean is 10 years of UNIX experience, with a lot of Linux specific training in the past few years. I find that about 90% of my Unix experience transferrs directly over to working on Linux, though there are plenty of quirks to re-learn, and a heck of a lot of new technology to keep up with.
  • The key word seems to be "commercial", which would let out previous research and/or governmental computers.
  • We do not need to have a separate linux distro, because the other distros around are good enough. We are quite capable of tweaking an existing distro to our own taste. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel, but putting it onto a really cool bike - that's a different matter. India has been working on supercomputing technology for quite a few years. We developed the param supercomputer completely indigenously. The reason for choosing linux as an operating system is probably the same as most of ours.
    - An Indian Geek
  • Well the problem is that not everyone is good enough to get into IIT, IISc or `good' engineering colleges. OTOH, anyone with a few bucks on him can join a computer institute and become a computer professional. A few years ago - around 1994, some computer institutes had slackware linux installed as a free substitute for UNIX. No idea what happened after that.
    At least at IIT Bombay, there is just one lab with windows machines. All other labs - 13 in the computer department, not to mention at least two in every other department run some kind of unix. most departments would run on linux, while SunOS is also used.
    Linux has also in use at several geek homes. Early in 1996, a computer magazine put slackware linux on the CD that came with the mag. That is what started most of us out on linux. The supercomputer is only one more step in a large move of computerisation.
    - self taught, but now in a `good' engineering college
  • For *about* 10 years.
    Well.. I've been using it for 8.... and there were certainly a good sized handful of people using it before I was.
    I'm fairly sure I heard about it at least a year before that.. possibly more.

    Of course, I could go check some linux timeline before sticking my foot in my mouth....

  • The point is that it's the first "LINUX BASED SUPERCOMPUTER", not the FIRST SUPERCOMPUTER.
    A rather big difference, I'd say.
    India has supercomputers. They made them themselves. They aren't stupid.
  • Hmm, what I don't understand is how they can claim to be "India's first 100% Linux company" and yet they are still using Micro$loth Frontpage to write their webpages... You can always tell a M$ designed webpage because it has a grey background (the default in IE is white so they don't bother to set it). What a bunch of mindless drones...
  • Here is a url for india's supercomputing research.. http://www.cdac.org.in/html/param.htm [cdac.org.in]
    Here is an excerpt:
    "It currently houses C-DAC's latest PARAM 10000, the most powerful supercomputer in India having a peak computing power of 100 GFlop with an architecture scalable to Teraflop range. C-DAC has advented the OpenFrame Architecture for scalable & flexible High Performance Computing unifying the well known NOW (Network of Workstations), COW (Cluster of Workstations) and MPP (Massively Parallel processor) architectures. This architecture has been realized in C-DAC's new PARAM 10000 series supercomputers, which are scalable from the desktop to teraflop range. The OpenFrame architecture of PARAM 10000 also realizes the server consolidation architecture required for building general-purpose High Performance Computing facilities.

    The PARAM 10000 series of machines are powered by state-of-the-art and emergent SUN's UltraSparc series of Servers/Workstations configured as Compute nodes, File Servers, Graphics nodes and Internet Server nodes. These nodes are interconnected through PARAMNet a high bandwidth, low latency network designed in-house and a choice of other high performance networks such as Myrinet, Gigabit, Fast Ethernet and ATM."


    Sorry for pasting a long part... but the website goes down quite often, and I wanted everyone to know.

  • Is there a formal definition of "supercomputer" out there? In my mind, I equate supercomputer with mainframe, which kinda messes with this article. Anyone got a good definition?
  • It is interesting that the article talks about "India's first supercomputer to run Linux" and the Slashdot headline comes to read that India's first supercomputer is Linux-based.

    Joy joy feelings to you, comrade Roblimo, for the double-plus good mindthink.
  • Red Spot ?
  • What Jayachandra has developed with help of a band of committed computer professionals -- who have had extensive Linux training in the US for about 10 years -- operates on the easy-to-learn Linux technology.

    Hmm... methinks there is something a little askew here
  • Ever used QNX Photon microGUI? Damn fast on a 286! Get the demo disk, it has a full graphical OS and web-borswer in 1.4 megs... qnx.com [qnx.com]
  • The US government defines it as being able to perform a 1 Gigaflop. (Unless they've upgraded this recently, now that Apple G4s can do this)

  • Indeed. I've started my 9th year just last week.

    Strictly speaking, 10 years is impossible though. Linus started working on The Thing in the spring of 1991, and first publicly announced something on July 5, 1991. See http://li.org/li/linuxhistory.shtml [li.org] for more details.

    --

  • Re:PARAM and Bewoulf (Score:3)

    by shri ( 17709 ) <shriramc@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Saturday January 08, 2000 @02:40PM (#1391880) Homepage
    Yes, this is true. The Param has been out there for quite a while, running on a SPARC based architecture. This is just one more moron jumping on the Linux bandwagon. Having said this, hopefully it inspires some of the mainstream companies like Wipro etc to jump on and release Linux based platforms. Any publicity is good, however a note to the folks reading about Linux in India for the first time, be paitent, our reporters are just as bad as some of the folks on ZDNET when they began their Linux coverage. With Oracle, Sybase and IBM providing their enterprise class software on Linux, Linux should really be the platform of choice for training computer professionals and students in India. We need a major initiative in India funded by the private industry to take a look at developing Linux as an alternative platform by contributing Hindi and other language capabilities to the code base. I actually find it hard to NOT find a single sector in India which would not benefit from having Linux as the preffered or alternative platform of choice.
  • There's a famous quote in computer architecture folklore: "A supercomputer is a device which converts a computation problem into an I/O problem."

    BTW, this is not completely a joke, since a big problem with supercomputers is that since they can chew on data faster than anything else, they need to be fed with large amounts of data at very high rates.

    Yumpee

  • I'm proud to be an Indian geek =D.. It's about time that India gets some linux supercomputers running.. now i just gotta talk them into giving me a free shell =D
  • Ahhh Myrinet, the choice for a Quaking generation.
  • "developed in India"? *sigh*

    "who have had extensive Linux training in the US for about 10 years" Wow, this is impressive! So Linus DID'NT release Linux in 1991! The Indians knew of it in great detail before then! Or have they also developed time travel?

    "Linux is a 32-bit multi-tasking, multi-user operating system" Whoops, better tell everyone using Linux on 286's and Alpha's that their computing lives do not actually exist. As Linux is a 32bit OS.

    I support a local educational institute, can I set up all the classrooms (hundreds of PII 300's and up) to be a Beowulf cluster for the after hours? Can I get this kind of "computer guru" recognition after obtaining a Beowulf CD from Red Hat and installing it? And then sell a bunch of rack mount PC's for a crazy mark up? Will that make me an innovator like Bill Gates?

    sigh.
  • You can always tell a M$ designed webpage because it has a grey background (the default in IE is white so they don't bother to set it).

    Gosh, I never knew the webpages I make using Linux were M$ designed. Believing that the reader knows best what his or her preferred background is, is an insight shared by more people than the ones on M$'s payroll.

    -- Abigail

  • This makes perfect sense to me (scary!). At work, while number crunching (or more accurately, database request processing) is important, most of the work done by the admins is to optimise the network and storage streams. (Which is better--multiple parallel SCSI connections to a disk array, or ESCON? Not an easy question to answer)

    That said, it means that our clump of mid-range HP servers constitutes a supercomputer, which doesn't quite sit right with me. (K-class, not really. V-class, maybe)

  • Er, I think that they just made a super-computer (of whatever capability) is testament to that. That's my whole point.
    My original comment started as a bemoan to the sub-contracting culture of US companies to make a short term profit. This, like most things, has knock on effects never imagined. M$ sub-contracted to India I think and now they build a Linux Beowulf. Good for them.
    BTW, India has a much better education system than US!
    Well, I've visited both countries and from the things I have seen I would say both (like most I have visited) need to invest in their own people more than they do.
    You will be sweeping their doorsteps as a humble and honest person I would gladly sweep anyones doorstep. Sadly for me I was born with the choice and had to learn my humility the hard way.
    It's a shame you chose Anon.
    .oO0Oo.
  • Jealous, yes and no I guess.
    India is a beautful country. Of all the places I have visited it has left me with the most indelible of impressions.
    The abject poverty I witnessed really rocked my young world (I was 16 on my first visit) and gave my a humilty I carry everywhere.
    Like most governments hooked on GDP they fail the people that need the most help. I'm jealous I don't live their with all my trappings of technostuff.
    .oO0Oo.
  • Here are some of the reasons that I think India may have choosen Linux as opposed to Windoze.

    1.) Open source - This allows India to ensure that there are NO backdoors to allow the United States or other countries to snoop into what they are using the machines for. It also allows for them to custom develop the OS into something that is more benificial to their needs.

    2.) Free - Not that this is a big deal with something on such a scale. But, it may be a factor in major clustors as opposed to licensing something like Windoze NT.

    3.) No licensing - I think this is the term I'm looking for. What I am trying to say here is that, India may import/export any system running this OS regardless of what anyone says since it has no owner per say.

    4.) GLOBAL development force - Humans from around the WORLD are constantly working on this popular OS. No matter what day, what time, or what location, there are at any given moment, hundreds if not thouhsands of people working on improving and fixing Linux!!!

    5.) Not owned by a US company - Dispite popular beliefs, the U.S. is not liked by everyone. By buying into a company like Microsloth, you in fact helping the economy of the country you may hate, which in turn helps them control your country further.

    Well, I guess those are the main reasons that I can think of right now. Feel free to add other perhaps more technical reasons to the list (ie: process programming as opposed to threading....etc)

    l8r

    ------
  • Redundant on post number 1? Redundant? Said before?

    Ummm, maybe redundant should not be an option for moderating post 1, ya think?
  • You are missing the point. The problem is that their images with a white background were obviously meant to go with a white backgrounded document---by not setting #bgcolor specifically for the document, the users settings will be used which means that the document will probably not look like they intended it to look.

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