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Centre for Development of Advanced Computing

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Centre For Development of Advanced Computing
MottoThe Supercomputing People
TypeResearch and Development
Established1984
Location,
CampusUrban
Websitewww.cdac.in

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is the premier R&D organization of the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MCIT) for carrying out R&D in IT, Electronics and associated areas. Different areas of C-DAC, had originated at different times, many of which came out as a result of identification of opportunities.

The setting up of C-DAC in 1988 itself was to built Supercomputers in context of denial of import of Supercomputers by USA. Since then C-DAC has been undertaking building of multiple generations of Supercomputer starting from PARAM with 1 GF in 1988. Almost at the same time, C-DAC started building Indian Language Computing Solutions with setting up of GIST group (Graphics and Intelligence based Script Technology); National Centre for Software Technology (NCST) set up in 1985 had also initiated work in Indian Language Computing around the same period. Electronic Research and Development Centre of India (ER&DCI) with various constituents starting as adjunct entities of various State Electronic Corporations, had been brought under the hold of Department of Electronics and Telecommunications (now DIT) in around 1988. They were focusing on various aspects of applied electronics, technology and applications. With the passage of time as a result of creative echo system that got set up in C-DAC, more areas such as Health Informatics, etc., got created; while right from the beginning the focus of NCST was on Software Technologies; similarly C-DAC started its education & training activities in 1994 as a spin-off with the passage of time, it grew to a large efforts to meet the growing needs of Indian Industry for finishing schools. C-DAC has today emerged as a premier third party R&D organization in IT&E (Information Technologies and Electronics) in the country working on strengthening national technological capabilities in the context of global developments in the field and responding to change in the market need in selected foundation areas. In that process, C-DAC represents a unique facet working in close junction with DIT to realize nation's policy and pragmatic interventions and initiatives in Information Technology. As an institution for high-end Research and Development (R&D), C-DAC has been at the forefront of the Information Technology (IT) revolution, constantly building capacities in emerging/enabling technologies and innovating and leveraging its expertise, caliber, skill sets to develop and deploy IT products and solutions for different sectors of the economy, as per the mandate of its parent, the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India and other stakeholders including funding agencies, collaborators, users and the market-place.

Starting from its initial mission on building indigenous supercomputers, Centre For Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has progressively grown to build an eco-system and institutional framework for innovation, technology development, skills, delivery plans, collaboration, partnership and market orientation in a number of niche areas of national importance and market relevance in ICT and Electronics.

Through in-house research, technology and product development efforts and in collaboration with Academia, Research Labs and Industry in India or abroad, it endeavours to identity promising ideas nurtured building of ideas and competencies convert many of them into practical tools, technologies, products and services to meet the needs of : SMEs and other industrial players in the country; intermediate players; and end-users in Science and Engineering, manufacturing & service sectors, government, health, development and strategic sectors.

Of special relevance to C-DAC are innovation and development of solutions impacting large public, in Indian context or those where technology and innovative approaches can make a big difference in cost or performance, offer new functionalities or contribute to better quality of life.

C-DAC’s focus has been on emerging as a leader in chosen enabling technology areas and work towards integration of these in end-to-end solutions in various verticals/domains including infrastructure. The latter is undertaken oftentimes by C-DAC itself but equally or more often in conjunction/collaboration with other public and private agencies through a consortium and partnership mode. Institutional innovation to support scaling up process of such efforts is also one of the priority objectives.

The focal areas in terms of enabling technologies as outlined above would be:

§ High Performance Computing & Grid Computing § Language Computing § Software Technologies with special reference to Free/Open Source Software § Professional Electronics including VLSI and Embedded Systems § Cyber Security § Health Informatics § Education & Training with special reference to Finishing School and areas of specialized skills

C-DAC has its head office in Pune & other offices at Mumbai (Juhu, Nariman Point), Navi Mumbai (Kharghar), Mohali (Punjab), Bangalore (Electronics City and Visvesvaraya Centre), Noida, Hyderabad (JNTU Campus, Ameerpet), Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Trivandrum.

Research

The technologies dealt with within the house of C-DAC are Natural language processing (NLP), Artificial Intelligence (AI), e-Learning, Multilingual computing, Multimedia computing, Geomatics, Cyber Security, Real Time Systems, Software & Industrial automation, High Performance Computing, Data Warehousing/Data Mining, Digital/Broadband Wireless networks, Modeling and Visualization etc. The sectors addressed are Finance, Healthcare, Power, Steel, Defence, Telecom, Agriculture, Industrial Control, Broadcasting, Education and e-Governance.

Some of the major research areas are:

Achievements

  • Established the first international Internet gateway into India
  • Vartalaap, a Unicode IRC Server
  • enabled rendering of Devanagari and other Indian scripts at the OS level in Microsoft Windows 2000/XP.
  • N@G : Network at guard, An intrusion detection system
  • Awards

Notable ex-CDACians

  • Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar , Founding Executive Director,
  • Dr. Srinivasan Ramani, founder NCST; Director, HP Labs India; Advisor to UN on Information and Communication Technologies
  • Prof. Sudhir P. Mudur, co-founder NCST; Chair, Professor, Computer Science Dept., Concordia University
  • P. Sadanandan, co-founder NCST
  • Vijayraman, director Persistent Systems
  • KSR Anjenayulu

See also