C-DAC and IBM Collaborate To Accelerate High Performance Computing

India is doubling down on a strategy that includes RISC-V and IBM power.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), backed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT,and IBM have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to form a joint working group aimed at accelerating high-performance computing (HPC) in India. The collaboration seeks the growth of India’s developer community, with a focus on processor design, system design, firmware, and application development, as well as contributions to open-source initiatives.

The HPC working group will address skilling, competency, and ecosystem building in HPC design research across the full technology stack for processor development. The partnership will also involve guidance to startups, support for co-development and innovation, and capacity-building workshops.

IBM’s Power processor will be promoted among startups, MSMEs, and research and academic organisations for HPC applications. The working group will work on identifying partners for designing and developing competitive indigenous processors based on the IBM Power architecture, capable of running data-intensive and mission-critical workloads.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and IT said that  the future is not only manufacturing semiconductors but also designing optimised  chip and IP blocks  for various industries. “We are doubling down on a strategy that includes RISC V and IBM’s Power—these two families will be the Indian families of semiconductors around which we will build multiple applications—microprocessors, IoT among others,” he said.

Sandip Patel, Managing Director of IBM India and South Asia, noted that the demand for HPC will grow significantly with the adoption of technologies like AI, presenting an opportunity for India to be a leader in this space. He emphasised that the collaboration aims to create a conducive environment and is a step forward in IBM’s commitment to enhancing India’s digital transformation and economic growth through such technologies.