EKA

Harish Bhat

Description

From steel to beverages and from supercomputers to automobiles, TATA companies have broken new ground and set new standards of excellence over the past two decades. Written by a TATA insider, TATAlog presents the hitherto untold stories about the strategic and operational challenges that TATA companies have faced, and the forward thinking and determination that have raised the brand to new heights. This is one of the eight riveting and inspiring stories from TATAlog that reveals the DNA of every TATA enterprise. Be sure to check out the other seven: *Tata Indica *Okhamandal *Tata Finance *Tanishq *Second Careers for Women *Tata Tetley *Tata Steel

Sujets

• Histoire
• Strategic management
• Economics
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351183044
• Langue: English

Extrait

HARISH BHAT
EKA: Birth of an Indian Supercomputer Eight Modern Stories from a Timeless Institution -->
Contents Dedication
Foreword
A Path Well Paved
Tata Indica, the Very First Indian Car
Uplifting Tales from Okhamandal
The Tribulations of Tata Finance
Tanishq Sets the Gold Standard
Second Careers for Intelligent Women -->
EKA: Birth of an Indian Supercomputer Tetley Enters the Tata Fold
Tata Steel Wins the Deming Prize
Epilogue: One Day in Kolkata
Acknowledgements -->
Copyright Page
EKA: Birth of an Indian Supercomputer
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
-Arthur C. Clarke
Supercomputing is part of the corporate arsenal to beat rivals by staying one step ahead on the innovation curve. It provides the power to design products and analyse data in ways once unimaginable.
- The Secret Weapon , a report by the US Council on Competitiveness, 2008
The magic of supercomputers
A tall, sleek computer called Deep Blue, created by IBM, defeated the world chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997. It was the first time that a computer had defeated the world s number one ranked player in tournament conditions. Deep Blue was so fast that it was capable of evaluating 200 million positions on the chess board-in a single second. Several years later, a supercomputer called Watson, again an IBM creation, is challenging human beings at board games. This time, it is taking on champions at Jeopardy! , a very popular television game show in the USA. Watson is designed to further the science of natural language processing. It can process about one million books in a single second; its brain is filled with extraordinary knowledge including literary works, articles and databases of all sorts. It is mounted on ten refrigerator-sized racks and has been called Deep Blue s grandchild. In 2011, a Japanese supercomputer called Kei dethroned American and Chinese machines to become the world s fastest supercomputer. Kei is the Japanese Kanji letter for ten quadrillion (that is, one followed by sixteen zeroes), and this computer is capable of mindboggling speed. It can make 8.2 quadrillion calculations per second!
Apart from winning chess and Jeopardy! games with astonishing ease, supercomputers are capable of solving complex problems very fast. They help scientists in important areas such as accurate weather forecasting, aerodynamic research, nuclear test simulation, car design and life-saving drugs. These involve very large and complex computations, which makes a really high-speed supercomputer essential.