HPCL, Mittal Energy joint venture picks IBM solution

Bangalore: IBM today announced that HMEL, a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment Pte Ltd., Singapore, has adopted a new IBM analytics-based solution to transform the way the company manages its financial and operations data.

HMEL had earlier partnered with IBM for the design and implementation of manufacturing execution systems (MES) including the selection of select processes and applications, as well as managing the mechanics of the project. The new IBM solution integrates information from the various components of the MES, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and control systems within the refinery and delivers a consolidated, single view of the data.

The technology will enable HMEL to analyse key corporate business processes including planned versus actual investments, production, key performance indicators, among others. The system will generate near real-time information for HMEL business executives to make more intelligent decisions around optimising productivity and margins. HMEL has built the 9 MMTPA (million metric tonne per annum) Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Bathinda, Punjab that has a capability of processing 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The IBM analytics solution also equips the organisation with power to interpret, transform and derive process operation actions from the information. It provides an industry standards based information model and associated integration techniques, enabling HMEL to turn data into information that can be accessed and delivered through Web services.

"As a greenfield project, we wanted to leverage the best of technology to ensure world-class operations and efficiency. We needed a solution that would provide us with a centralised view of all our assets for operational management purposes," said Moiz Tankiwala, Chief Operating Officer, HMEL.

IBM has been working alongside HMEL as part of Project Prism, the umbrella programme to implement strategic applications for HMEL, to support the ERP system, manage master data (MDM), build key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards, and create an integration business application environment. The Cognos Business Intelligence solution helps HMEL in building an enterprise-class Performance Management platform closely aligned with their existing technical architecture.

Vanitha Narayanan, Managing Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia said: “Amidst complex processes, like in a refinery, use of analytics can transform financial processes and improve operational efficiencies.”

IBM developing storage device of just 12 atoms

Researchers at IBM have stored and retrieved digital 1s and 0s from an array of just 12 atoms, pushing the boundaries of the magnetic storage of information to the edge of what is possible.

The findings, being reported Thursday in the journal Science, could help lead to a new class of nanomaterials for a generation of memory chips and disk drives that will not only have greater capabilities than the current silicon-based computers but will also consume significantly less power. And it may offer a new direction for research in quantum computing.

"Magnetic materials are extremely useful and strategically important to many major economies, but there aren't that many of them," said Shan X Wang, director of the Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology at Stanford University. "To make a brand new material is very intriguing and scientifically very important."

Until now, the most advanced magnetic storage systems have needed about 1 million atoms to store a digital 1 or 0. The new achievement is the product of a heated international race between two elite physics laboratories to explore the properties of magnetic materials at a far smaller scale.

Last May, a group at the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Hamburg in Germany reported on the ability to perform computer logic operations on an atomic level.

The group at IBM's Almaden Research Center here, led by Andreas Heinrich, has now created the smallest possible unit of magnetic storage by painstakingly arranging two rows of six iron atoms on a surface of copper nitrite atoms. The cluster of atoms is described as anti-ferromagnetic - a rare quality in which each atom in the array has an opposed magnetic orientation. (In common ferromagnetic materials like iron, nickel and cobalt, the atoms are magnetically aligned.)

Under the laboratory's founder, Don Eigler, IBM has explored the science of nanomaterials far smaller than the silicon chips used in today's semiconductors. Eigler recently retired from the company but is a co-author of the Science paper.

The researchers now use a scanning tunneling microscope, which looks like a giant washing machine festooned with aluminum foil, not only to capture images of atoms but to reposition individual atoms - much the way a billiard ball might be moved by a pool cue with a sticky tip.

Although the research took place at temperatures near absolute zero, the scientists wrote that the same experiment could be done at room temperature with as few as 150 atoms.

As part of its demonstration of the anti-ferromagnetic storage effect, the researchers created a computer byte, or character, out of an individually placed array of 96 atoms. They then used the array to encode the IBM motto "Think" by repeatedly programming the memory block to store representations of its five letters.

IBM opens three new offices in India

IBM has announced the opening of three regional offices in India as part of the company's on-going geographic expansion in the country. The new offices in Dehradun, Guwahati and Raipur provide IBM with a footprint of 18 branch offices across India to date. IBM is currently focused on increasing its presence in smaller, rapidly developing Indian cities as part of its plan to establish a presence in 40 Indian cities by 2013. The company is witnessing demand for information management, security, cloud computing and business analytics solutions as businesses and government organizations turn to IT to reduce costs and gain competitive advantage. The company is also investing in the education system in these regions with a number of partnerships and academic initiatives especially to support the growth of Open Source technologies. IBM has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT) in Guwahati. "These are dynamic times for Indian regional development and there is tremendous market potential in these cities that we are expanding into," said Nipun Mehrotra, Vice President, General Business, Geographic Expansion, IBM India/South Asia.

IBM draws up 5-year India roadmap

Bangalore: Big Blue is turning 100 on June 16. As part of its centenary celebration, IBM in India has drawn up a five-year roadmap with a focus on emerging markets, business analytics, cloud computing and smarter planet.

IBM India managing director Shanker Annaswamy said the company services 700 large global clients from India. "The domestic market itself is very important for us. Telecom sector will be the main focus area for us, while banking, financial services, infrastructure, enterprise data warehousing and cloud computing will other spaces of importance for us in India."

In India, IBM is the largest IT services provider. Some 70% of its Indian revenues come from services and the rest from hardware. The company's BRIC region (Brazil, Russia, India and China) revenues grew by 19% during calendar 2010.

Annaswamy said, over its century of existence IBM has played a leading role in transforming business, science and society. Reinvesting modern corporation, pioneering the science of information and making the world work better will be the theme areas for IBM.

Since its reentry into India in 1992, IBM has been instrumental in enabling transformation across major industries including telecommunication, financial services, automotive, infrastructure, healthcare, government and education.

IBM will bring out a centennial book recording the history of the company and three journalists including Kevin Maney, Steve Hanm and Jeffrey M O'Brian are editing the book.