India, Pune, November 13, 1990.
A day later, Aryan arrived in Pune.
He went straight to C-DAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computing).
I came here to see the progress of India's first supercomputer, PARAM.
"I don't know how far the project has progressed...hey, I'm so excited."
He is excited because he will see Dr. Vijay Bhatkar today.
In the original world, Dr. Vijay Bhatkar was a legendary scientist who surprised the whole world by building India's first supercomputer in three years.
He made India the only developing country to build a supercomputer in the 1990s and export it to developed countries.
"Sir, you look excited today!" He is Aryan's bodyguard, Major Rudra Pratap Singh, a former Para SF who joined the SPG after completing a top-secret mission in Kashmir and leads Aryan's personal security officers.
"Today, we are going to meet a scientist who will represent India in the global arena." A river of praise flows from Aryan's mouth.
"Haha~ It's my good fortune that the new Prime Minister is praising it so much to a staunch scientist like me." A middle-aged man entered Aryan's room. He is showing a kind and gentle smile.
The person is none other than Dr. Vijay Bhatkar.
"No, no, it's our luck that scientists like you, seeing the state of our country, are still here to lend a helping hand in our time of need instead of leaving it and going abroad." Aryan bowed and thanked him.
"Thank you, Prime Minister."
"But you are wrong about one thing. India is my country, too. I grew up here, and this country made me. How can I leave my country and go to another country just for better opportunities?"
Dr. Vijay Bhatkar shook his head and said.
"Hey, I don't know if we are lucky or you are unlucky."
"Other countries will look up to scientists like you, but we can't give you enough opportunities. But don't worry. We will also bring a day to our country when scientists from other countries will come to our country for opportunities." Aryan said emotionally.
"No, I'm not unlucky, I'm lucky. No matter which country I go to, the history of no other country is as rich as ours, nor is the culture as colorful as ours. Besides, no one can give you the opportunity; you have to earn it yourself. And I did that from India." Dr. Vijay Bhatkar shook his head again and pointed out Aryan's mistake.
"Thank you, Dr. Bhatkar." Aryan once again thanked Dr. Vijay Bhatkar.
. . . . .
After a few minutes of conversation, Dr. Vijay Bhatkar asked, "Prime Minister Gupta, I don't know why you have come!"
"Can't I come?" Aryan asked jokingly.
"Hahaha~ What can I say~ The door is always open for you." Dr. Vijay Bhatkar said with a smile.
"Well, anyway, I came to see the progress of PARAM. Dr. Bhatkar, if you have time, would you like to discuss with me the progress of the PARAM project?" Aryan politely requested.
"Yes, of course. The Prime Minister has rarely taken the time to come here, so how can I say no?"
"Then I thank Dr. Bhatkar in advance."
"No big deal~ No big deal."
"..."
About an hour passed.
Dr. Vijay Bhatkar explained the basics of the PARAM supercomputer to Aryan.
"This means that our supercomputer's processor is a 32-bit parallel processing system... So it means, in the future, our supercomputer performs at ~1 GigaFLOP..."
Aryan hummed and thought.
"Yes, although we are not directly using vector processing, our supercomputer is capable of handling vector operations efficiently." Dr. Vijay Bhatkar added.
Aryan nodded and said, "America's Cray Y-MP's processing power is about ~2 GigaFLOP or ~4 GigaFLOP. Secret information stated that it could be as high as ~16 GigaFLOP. I don't know for sure. But the point is that this is not their first supercomputer."
"Their first supercomputer, the Cray-1, had a processing power of about ~160 MegaFLOPs, which is much lower than our first supercomputer."
"Of course, time matters here. They built their first supercomputer in the 1970s, and we are building it in the 1990s."
"But it's not like we are building supercomputers with technology from somewhere else."
"We are using our indigenous Indian hardware and software, and this is our first attempt, and we are building something much better than the current time."
"Haha~ Mr. Prime Minister, it seems you understand a lot about computers." Dr. Vijay Bhatkar asked, a little surprised.
"Well, I studied a little when I was at Cambridge..." Aryan made a random excuse.
"Hmm. So, does the Prime Minister have any suggestions?"
Aryan thought for a moment, and a plan came to his mind. Before he could say anything, the system notification rang in his ears.
[Ding! Task triggered.]
[Task: Create India's first Silicon Valley using supercomputers.]
[Reward: Cyber Defense Domain Technology.]
"Yes, that's why I came."
"I want you to use a fabric-optic ring interconnect topology. So, we can get data transfer speeds of 500Mbps to 1Gbps for each link."
"If we do that, the nodes will upgrade from ~256 to ~4000+ nodes."
"And I want you to use a water cooling system instead of an air cooling system. Just like water can withstand more heat than air."
"We can use non-conductive liquids to keep our supercomputer cool."
"I will send DRDO, ISRO, IIT gold medalist, and NRI scientists and increase the project's funds tenfold."
"Your responsibility will be to build a supercomputer to challenge the Cray Y-MP. Our current target is not really the Cray Y-MP, and we know we won't succeed in building it on the first try. But if we try, I think we might succeed in building the second or third most powerful supercomputer in the world."
"Besides, we now have 3G technology that I will ask the Information Minister to share with you. See if you can get some help from there."
Dr. Vijay Bhatkar was stunned after listening to Aryan's series of words.
His eyes widened, and he asked, "Really?"
"Hmm."
"Great! It will allow us to build faster and more powerful computers. We couldn't add many functions and technologies because of the funding, and we also lacked scientists."
"We also wanted to use a water cooling system, but it was an experimental project. We did not have enough funds, so we opted for an air cooling system. On the other hand, we have little technology for optical fibers. We had already applied to the government for its technology. But we could not deal with other countries."
"Isn't it funny that an Indian scientist invented this optical cable, but we Indians don't know much about its technology?" Dr. Vijay Bhatkar smiled regretfully and shook his head.
When Aryan heard Dr. Vijay Bhatkar's last words, he bit his lower lip.
'Honestly, this has always been a problem for us. Whether it's the 1990s now or the year 2025 of my previous life.'
. . . . . .