Fray over Cray
MAX MARTIN and N RAGHURAM
cray, the American supercomputer which was denied to India seven years ago is now hitting the market. The new Crays, offered by Silicon Graphics-Cray Research tie-up, are much more advanced than the Cray- xmp , the limited power supercomputer the us grudgingly sold under strict conditions and placed under direct us security till 1994 at the National Medium Range Weather Forecasting Centre ( nmrwfc ), New Delhi. "We find a potential market in India. And the us government has relaxed it embargoes on selling supercomputers,' says Pradeep Marwaha, business development manager of Silicon Graphics-Cray Research.
As the us had blocked Cray's use in space and nuclear research, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre ( barc ) and Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group, a defence research body developed their own supercomputers for strategic use. Indian Institute of Science and National Aerospace Laboratories ( nal ) followed suit. "Now the us does not have just market interest; they don't want the supercomputer industry to develop here,' says V P Bhatkar, executive director of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing ( c-dac ), a scientific society under the Department of Science and Technology ( dst ).
Cray's re-entry means serious heartburn to Indian supercomputer developers, a dozen-odd institutions who assemble their own machines. Since 1991, c-dac has sold 30 of its own programme, the param machines, four of them abroad. Still, Bhatkar questions the wisdom of opening up a