India Aims To Take The "World's Fastest Supercomputer" Crown By 2017

India sure is ambitious, going after the top computing spot and looking to boost their space plans toward Mars. I'm all for making advances, but I sure hope they can use what they learn to get the rest of their nation out of the stone-age. It's alarming how many people in India live below what is considered "poverty" and have no access to the basics like running water or electricity. I sure hope they don't lose sight of this fact.

Can't feed the people but need a supercomputer.

I am sure there is absolutely no poverty in the US and the country feeds everybody.

The phenomena of the extreme rich and the distance from the extreme poor are advancing all over the world. It’s just India has a lot more starving and so I see your perspective, which makes the point louder.

Still, I am for science, knowledge, education to help solve these problems. In that I see the India super computer justified.

It just doesn't matter how fast or how powerful the computer is, or that it can do 600 bazillion computations a second.
If you asked it this question it would crash: "how do you understand women"

Who are they trying to impress. The world owe almost all modern scientific and technological progress and innovations to the west. It will not change anything if India create this computer, to do so they will need to use the scientific knowledge and the know how that the west gave them. In addition, in 5 year this computer might already be outdated because of other technological progress in the west. This is like their space program, a complete wast of time to flatter their ego and make them believe that they are part of the advanced nations. Pathetic Indian pride.

A hammer is only as good as the carpenter using the tool.

Increased processor speed is now just how many electrons you can influence for your purpose. How far can you double your fields through which substrate or base compound is the benchmark. Resistance is futile. Assimilation to begin immediately.

@Tosoledo
I beg to differ on this point. Just for your information rockets developed by ISRO were indigenously designed. You can check the fact on wiki. Western countries denied technology transfer to ISRO at that time. There is no point in wasting time on developed technologies. But still we did it without help! Also, Per my knowledge the rockets costed 1/4 as compared to the west and its reliability is also applauded world wide.

One of the biggest ever inventions , the basics of any technological inventions i.e mathematics was in fact invented in india!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions

There are lot of technological advancements in which India has contributed. I still haven't considered the inventions which were done by Indians in other countries.

Anyways my point is , its not like only west has contributed to technological advancements. Other countries have also contributed big time. Some big countries like Japan , Russia.

And in case of building super computers any one can do it, if they have necessary resources.

I would agree to a point that from AD 1000 - AD 1930 india was busy defending itself from invasion and internal issues, which hampered technological growth.

Our current problems are infrastructure, big time corruption and poverty which we need to solve. But still we are making progress in other avenues. (Only thing where india lacks is sports except cricket :P)

@Toseledo: So why the hell is West spending so much in Space and Defense with 6% unemployment. What are you accomplishing from space program. Useless hype and foolish pride.

We are working on all the fields simultaneously . So as per your statement , we are not supposed to work on Space and Defense until the unemployment and poverty is gone , is that what it is .... , so why can't u eradicate unemployment and then start thinking abt space ...

You just can't bear it when other countries develop or try to come close, can you ? Somewhere China is getting powerful and thats a threat, so aren't u a threat when u become powerful.

Try to be rational and open minded, you guys are not the whole world or the world's smartest, u did not even have country 400 years back ....

India has better core training in base principles across the board, which is why our jobs are going there. We are teaching second year college students how to use a graphics calculator, and Tokyo can't find a computer in the world that can get into school. As a nation, we are shedding base science daily now. Surprised that money follows it out? Not even. We got so-called all around skill critical personnel everywhere who wouldn't know a Lorentz transform in process if it was arcing between their teeth. We got farmboys trying to fill the gaps in generations of tech vs available skillsets. Further tying up innovations that they are in fact well known for, but now just aren't doing. Teach us somethin cool, India.

5 years 870 million dollars and someone is going to use it for WOW.

Nearly 500,000,000 people don't have the use of toilets, but they're going to build supercomputers.....ROFL ! India desperately needs to invest in its infrastructure. Hundreds of companies worldwide have pulled out of India because they have no highways and the roads they do have are clogged with ox carts and farmers.

I'm so perplexed by this too. They are some of the smartest people in the world if you look at their discoveries ie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions_and_discoveries

but no toilets ?

This is pointless. 2017? Right now the U.S accounts for most of the worlds top supercomputers. The fastest supercomputer was the Cray Jaguar in 2009 which had speeds of 1.759 PFLOPS. Then China surpassed us with the Tianhe-IA with speeds of 2.566 PFLOPS in 2010. 2011 Japan beat China with the Fujitsu K computer at 10.51 PFLOPS and in 2011 the U.S came out with the IBM Sequoia which has speeds of 16.32 PFLOPS. Then the U.S beat ourselves and we came out with the Titan which has speeds of 20 petaFLOPS. So my point is, when India creates this supercomputer, either they're not going to succeed or there is going to be something far more powerful that is released the next year. Most likely from the U.S too. So for them, it is a complete waste of money. In the end the U.S seems to always be at the top when it comes to the worlds fastest supercomputers. India should be spending that money on trying to reduce their poverty level and make other innovations instead. The electronic computer was born in the U.S. There's no taking the crown from them when our government funding for scientific research is FAR too large and when we're at the top for computer technology and computer tech research.

@bearebel I agree that the mans comment was really harsh, but it had some truth to it. This supercomputer will be outdated eventually because of something created in the west. Further more, you cannot ever completely abolish unemployment. Some people are just lazy and don't want to work.

PS:The most ancient mathematical texts available are Plimpton 322 (Babylonian mathematics c. 1900 BC), the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (Egyptian mathematics c. 2000-1800 BC). India did not invent Mathematics.