C-DAC : Centre for development of Advanced Computing is India's National initiative inAdvanced Computing. The Mission of C-DAC is to develop world class technology to be used in various kinds of applications. This initiative has developed the celebrated PARAM series of "open Frame Architecture" Super computers. The latest grand challenge of C-DAC has been to deliver to the nation a "Teraflops Super Computer which has made india one of the facets of C-DAC. (albeit the most prestigious).
C-DAC is also renowed for a number of other contributions to India. One of them is Multi-Lingual Computing popularly known as the Gist Technology. Gist (Graphics and intelligence based Script Technology) is the initiative of putting indian Languages and their complex script as well as grammatical structures onto the Computer, rather on all fronts of IT.
From the outest Gist Group has been associated in providing a platform for various applications indian languages in the current era where various technologies are converging, giving way to some of the new, unheared of media. To achieve this Gist has pushed forward the route of developing standards relevant to indian languages for all the possible technologies.
For the basic computing, Gist was associated in introducing ISCII (Indian standard Script Code for Information Interchange). To overcome the keyboard barrier for the new comers, Gist developed the MIT recognized INSCRIPT keyboard layout. To handle Front-related issues, ISFOC (Indian Standard FOnt Code) was developed. Paging technologies saw the emergence of ISCLAP, similarly Gist was conducted in many ways to make that the use of Indian languages is an easy affair.
Today Gist technology is deployed in the form of packaged products for applications such as Data Processing, Word Processing, Publishing, Graphic Design, Multimedia, Video-works etc on a wide range of platforms such as the Internet, Windows, UNIX, MAC, DOS &custom built hardware. All these products support the Indian languages namely Assamese, Bengali, Devnagari, Gujarati, Kanada, Malyalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. Gistproducts have cross compatibility to assure the user that their valuable data is always safe with Gist.
Gist technology has played an important role in some projects of national importance such as the Land Records Project, the Election Identity-Card, Indian Railway Ticketing etc. Today Gist Technology forms a part of some of the mission critical activities for many establishments. A lot of content has been created on the web in Indian languages. This has been made available using Gist Technology in one form or the other.
Gist Technology is not meant to be resident only on the machines of the developers. With this intention in mind PACE programme has been designed so that the Technology which has done India proud can be taken to the root level so that every Indian can relate to it and feel a part of it. Through the PACE programme, training in basic and essential computing is being promoted using the indian languages as the medium. This is the medium of India, designed for the Indians, keeping the needs of a common Indian mind. This programme gives each and every person an opportunity to make the most of computing technology without having a technical back ground. With this initiative CDAC has used the high quality intellectual base that it possess to create training infrastructure. This has been one of the first deployments which has met with extraordinary success across all sections of India.
Through this programme, CDAC wishes for every Indian to take the advantage of the IT revolution in terms of gaining knowledge and applying it. PACE programme has tried to apply the IT applications in its courseware through the Local language usage. CDAC feels proud to take various IT application usage and their training to the masses in different segments with the help of local languages. This would certainly build the IT foundations and bring a change to the society.
Other than the PACE programme, CDAC also has another wing which concentrates on training in high end computing. This is called the Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS) to meet the training needs of existing and prospective users of Advanced Computing and Multimedia Systems. With this State-of-the-Art syllabus, constantly modified to suit the needs and demands of the Industry, ACTS is one more success story in the CDAC saga. Component faculty drawn from among the best, and innovative and challenging course and well-equipped libraries and laboratories have made ACTS a by-name in the industry for the quality, discipline, knowledge and dedication of its alumni. The ACTs of ACTS spread across the country are today equipped to meet India's greatest challenge: Human Resource Development in the IT Industry.