New HPC Systems|| Arka|| Arunika|| UPSC Current Affairs

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Context

PM inaugurated two advanced High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems, 'Arka' and 'Arunika', dedicated to weather and climate research.

These state-of-the-art systems were developed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Overview

The systems, named to reflect their connection with Surya, the sun (the primary energy source for Earth), will significantly enhance India’s ability to accurately forecast extreme weather events, a key challenge in mitigating the impact of climate variability.

Arka

Located at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune, this system boasts a computational capacity of 11.77 Peta FLOPS and storage of 33 petabytes.

Arunika

Housed at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) in Noida, this system features 8.24 Teraflops of computing power and 24 petabytes of storage.

Additionally, the project includes a standalone system for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)applications with a capacity of 1.9 Peta FLOPS.

The installation of these new systems increases the Ministry’s total computing power to 22 Peta FLOPS, a substantial leap from the earlier capacity of 6.8 Peta FLOPS. This positions India among global leaders in weather and climate forecasting capabilities.

This ₹850 crore project is a testament to India’s commitment to leveraging advanced technology for better climate preparedness.

High-Performance Computing (HPC)

Introduction	High-performance computing (HPC) is the ability to run computations in a synchronized manner across a large number of networked computers. HPC makes it possible to run computations that are too large for regular computers, reducing the time it takes to complete large operations. HPC is also referred to as supercomputing, and high-performance computers are commonly referred to as supercomputers.
Key Components	A single high-performance computer is made up of a group of computers called a cluster. Each computer in a cluster is called a node. Each node has an operating system consisting of a processor with multiple cores, storage, and networking capabilities that allow the nodes to communicate with each other. A small cluster, for example, can have 16 nodes with 64 cores, or four cores per processor, which, combined with networking capabilities, enables the high-performance computer to compute things much faster than a normal computer.
HPC vs. Quantum	HPC relies on classical computing, while quantum computing uses quantum mechanics. Both can complement each other in hybrid systems, but HPC remains dominant for large-scale tasks.
Applications	Healthcare & Life Sciences: Genome sequencing, drug discovery. Media & Entertainment: 3D rendering, live streaming. Finance: Fraud detection, risk analysis. Government & Defense: Climate modeling, energy research. Automotive: Computational fluid dynamics, design optimization.
Challenges	Ensuring HPC clusters scale efficiently to accommodate larger datasets and more complex computations. HPC systems consume enormous power, making energy efficiency critical. Building and maintaining HPC infrastructure, especially on-premises, is expensive. Cloud-based HPC offers alternatives, but data transfer costs can be high.
National Initiatives	Countries like the U.S., China, and India are heavily investing in HPC to stay competitive in areas such as defense, climate research, and AI-driven innovation. India, for instance, has its National Supercomputing Mission.