Centre for Development of Advanced Computing

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is a research and development organization under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Govt of India. The National Centre for Software Technology (NCST), ER&DCI and CEDTI were merged into C-DAC in 2003.

History

After being denied a Cray supercomputer by the United States in 1987 due to a fear of it being used for military purposes, India started a program to develop an indigenous supercomputer in collaboration with Russia. Supercomputers were considered a double edged weapon capable of assisting in the development of nuclear weapons. For the purpose of achieving self-sufficiency in the field, C-DAC was established by the Department of Electronics in 1988. Vijay Bhatkar was hired as the Director of C-DAC. The project was given an initial run of 3 years and an initial funding of ₹30,00,00,000 as the same amount of money and time was usually expended to secure the purchase of a supercomputer from the US. In 1990, a prototype was produced and was benchmarked at the 1990 Zurich Supercomputering Show (CONPAR 1990?). It surpassed most other systems, placing second after US.

The final result of the effort was the PARAM 8000, which was installed in 1991. It is considered India's first supercomputer.

Research activities

Originally established to research and assemble High Performance Computers, the research of C-DAC has spread to

• High Performance Computers
• Grid Computing
• Electronics
• Speech and Natural Language Processing
• Information and Cyber Security
• Ubiquitous Computing
• Bioinformatics
• Geomatics
• Digital forensics

Branches

C-DAC branches and training centers include:

• C-DAC Pune (Headquarters)
• C-DAC Bangalore
• C-DAC Chennai
• C-DAC Delhi
• C-DAC Hyderabad
• C-DAC Kolkata
• C-DAC Mohali
• C-DAC Mumbai
• C-DAC Noida
• C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram
• C-DAC Silchar

Education and training

C-DAC provides several courses in the field of advanced computing and software development. Among these are the hpc certification course C-DAC Certified HPC Professional Certification Programme (CCHPCP). CDAC organises advanced computing diploma programmes through the Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) located all over India. The PG Diploma courses include specialisations in Embedded System Design, VLSI, etc.

Products and developments

• PARAM series of supercomputers
• Anvaya Workflows, a workflow environment for automated genome analysis.
• Namescape, the search engine for the Aadhaar unique-ID project.
• GARUDA, India's National Grid Computing Initiative
• Bharat Operating System Solutions, a Linux-based general purpose operating system
• TaxoGrid, a grid-based molecular phylogenetics and drug discovery system
• GIST, Graphics and Intelligence based Script Technology
• DARPAN, a real time network monitoring, visualization and Service Level Agreement monitoring tool developed by C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram.
• Punarjjani, a web based integrated assessment tool for mentally challenged children developed by C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram.

Notable researchers and alumnus

• Vijay P. Bhatkar, founding director, recipient of Padma Bhushan award
• Rajkumar Buyya, professor at Melbourne University, formerly worked as a Senior Scientist at C-DAC Bangalore
• Srinivasan Ramani, contributed in bringing the internet to India in 1987 through the academic network ERNET, served as an adviser on UN ICT Task Force, and was the first director of HP Labs, India
• Sudhir P. Mudur, former director of C-DAC, current head of Computer Science Department, Concordia University.
• T M Vijayaraman, head of Persistent Systems's research, formerly worked at C-DAC Mumbai.

Notable awards and accolades

• Manthan Award 2013 for Mobile Tele-Ophthalmology Units, e-safeT, ONAMA.
• Manthan Award 2012 for Interactive Museum, Megh Sushrut, National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway.

Project(s)

NDCRTC

See also

• Supercomputing in India