India has broken into the top tier of supercomputing after a new machine built by Tata, the country’s largest industrial conglomerate, was listed as the fourth fastest in the world.

Based in Pune, EKA, the Tata system, is the most powerful computer in Asia, according to Top 500, the organisation that compiles what is regarded as the definitive list of the world’s most powerful systems.

The machine was constructed from $30 million worth of off-the-shelf components from Hewlett Packard in an architectural framework designed by Tata engineers.

It will work on problems ranging from oil exploration expediations and research on new drugs to animation and video gaming software.

India’s entry into the top flight of high-speed computing comes amid a significant reshuffle among the sector’s elite installations with America’s dominance over the sector coming under challenge.

The latest Top 500 list shows three new entrants in the top five: a new German-based entry in second place, built by IBM; Tata’s EKA; and a new machine built for the Swedish Government by Hewlett Packard at No 5.

The churn coincides with burgeoning competition in "mass market" supercomputers, a sector estimated to be worth more than $30 billion a year. Analysts put growth at about 20 per cent a year, as researchers harness levels of performance available at prices undreamt of a decade ago.

A new supercomputer recently built for University College London (UCL) by Dell, for instance, will work on projects ranging from searches for new bespoke cures for cancer, based on individual patients’ DNA, to research on the origins of the universe.

Meanwhile, the task of writing code that exploits the full capacity of the latest generation of ultra-high performance computers is expected to have knock-on effects for computer-driven trading models used in the City.

EKA, developed by Computational Research Laboratories (CRT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, was developed using scientists from across the Tata group, a vast conglomerate that spans operations ranging from IT consultancy to tea farming.

CRT plans to provide a “one-stop-shop” for supercomputing, supplying applications and software and sourcing hardware from partners.

Ratan Tata, the billionaire chairman of the Tata group said: “High performance computing solutions have an ever-increasing role in the scientific and new technological space the world over … I am sure this supercomputer and its successor systems will make a major contribution to India’s ongoing scientific and technological initiatives.”

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