Centre for Development of Advanced Computing

C-DAC was created in November 1988, originally as the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing Technology (C-DACT).[2] This was in response to issues purchasing supercomputers from foreign sources.[3] After being denied a Cray supercomputer by the United States in 1988, due to military use concerns, India started a programme to develop an indigenous supercomputer and C-DAC was created as part of this programme.[4][5] Supercomputers were considered a double-edged weapon capable of assisting in the development of nuclear weapons.[6]

Dr Vijay Bhatkar was hired as the Director of C-DAC.[5] 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.[5]

A prototype computer was benchmarked at the 1990 Zurich Super-computing Show: it demonstrated that India had the second most powerful, publicly-demonstrated , supercomputer in the world after the United States.[5]

The final result of the effort was the PARAM 8000, released in 1991.[7] It is considered to be India's first supercomputer.

The National Centre for Software Technology, Electronic Research and Development Center and CEDTI were merged into C-DAC in 2003.[8][9]

Originally established to research and assemble High Performance Computers, the research of C-DAC now includes:

• High Performance Computing
• Grid Computing
• Cloud Computing
• Multilingual Computing
• Heritage Computing
• Electronics
• VLSI
• Embedded Systems
• Speech and Natural Language Processing
• Information and Cyber Security
• Ubiquitous Computing
• Bioinformatics
• Geomatics
• Digital forensics
• Big data analytics
• Blockchain
• Health Informatics

C-DAC branches and training centers include:[10]

• C-DAC Pune (Headquarters)
• C-DAC Bangalore
• C-DAC Chennai
• C-DAC Delhi[11]
• C-DAC Kolkata
• C-DAC Patna
• C-DAC Mohali
• C-DAC Noida
• C-DAC Hyderabad
• C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram[12]
• C-DAC Silchar
• C-DAC Mumbai

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).[13] C-DAC organises advanced computing diploma programs through the Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) located all over India. The PG Diploma courses include specialisations in Embedded System Design, VLSI, Big Data Analytics, Geoinformatics, Artificial Intelligence etc.[14] Admissions to all PG Diploma courses of C-DAC are done through C-DAC's Computerised Common Admission Test (C-CAT). Every year, C-CAT is usually conducted in June (for August admissions) and December (for February admissions). C-DAC has also worked in the establishment of a number of Centres of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) abroad under Ministry of External Affairs' s development partnership projects. [15]

• PARAM series of supercomputers
• Anvaya Workflows, a workflow environment for automated genome analysis.[16]
• Namescape, the search engine for the Aadhaar unique-ID project.[17]
• GARUDA, India's National Grid Computing Initiative[18][19]
• Bharat Operating System Solutions, a Linux-based general purpose operating system
• TaxoGrid, a grid-based molecular phylogenetics and drug discovery system[13]
• 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.[20]
• Punarjjani, a web based integrated assessment tool for mentally challenged children developed by C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram.[21]
• Shrutlekhan-Rajbhasha, a Hindi language speech recognition software application developed by C-DAC in collaboration with IBM[22]

• Vijay P. Bhatkar, founding director, recipient of Padma Bhushan award[23]
• Rajkumar Buyya, professor at Melbourne University, formerly worked as a Senior Scientist at C-DAC Bangalore[24]
• Srinivasan Ramani, contributed in bringing the internet to India in 1987 through the academic network ERNET,[25] served as an adviser on UN ICT Task Force, and was the first director of HP Labs, India[26]
• Sudhir P. Mudur, former director of C-DAC, current head of Computer Science Department, Concordia University.[27]
• T M Vijayaraman, head of Persistent Systems's research, formerly worked at C-DAC Mumbai.[28]

• Manthan Award 2013 for Mobile Tele-Ophthalmology Units,[29] e-safeT,[30] ONAMA.[31]
• Manthan Award 2012 for Interactive Museum,[32] Megh Sushrut,[33] National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway.[34]
• National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, 2012
• See more at CDAC website

• NDCRTC
• e-mahashabdkosh
• Chitrankan

• Supercomputing in India