AMD, Indian Ministry Launch Supercomputers for Climate Challenge
AMD in partnership with the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) unveiled two supercomputers, “Arka” and “Arunika.” Named to reflect their connection to the Sun, these high-performance clusters, were inaugurated by Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi recently.
Ranked among the top three supercomputers in India, Arka and Arunika are the nation’s most powerful CPU-based computing systems. They hold the distinction of being the Number 1 supercomputers in India powered exclusively by CPU compute, distinguishing them from other systems that leverage GPU compute for higher performance scores.
The Arka cluster, situated at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune, boasts an impressive capacity of 11.77 Peta FLOPS. They are powered by 3021 compute nodes, each equipped with two AMD EPYC™ 7643 processors, a 48 core CPU. Arka will support meteorological research and climate studies. It will also help significantly enhance the accuracy and lead time of phenomena like tropical cyclones, heavy precipitation, and heat waves in the subcontinent.
The Arunika cluster, hosted at the National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) in Noida, specializes in production forecasting with a robust 8.24 Peta FLOPS and 2115 compute nodes. This computing system will help India manage its oceanic resources by studying its marine ecosystems. It will also help build an integrated data model to support disaster management in the country.
“AMD has long been at the forefront of leveraging technology to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change. Our AMD EPYC™ processors power many of the world’s most innovative, energy-efficient, and high-performance supercomputers. We are honoured to collaborate with the Ministry of Earth Sciences in building the Arka and Arunika HPC clusters. This partnership highlights AMD’s commitment to advance India’s research capabilities and strengthen the nation’s climate resilience and environmental research by making available best in class technologies.” said Jaya Jagadish, Country Head and Senior Vice President of Silicon Design Engineering, AMD India.
