Dated February 13, 2004
The Economic Times

The Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC) has come to the rescue of scientists and biotechnologists working in both government and private R&D labs of the country. Genetic researchers can not only harness the one-teraflop computing power of India's latest supercomputer, PARAM Padma, they can also fall back on a handy Problem Solving Environment (PSE) software tool to run the bioinformatics software.

Premier research institutes like IISc, CCMB, IICT and IIT-Mumbai have already logged on while enquires are flowing in from pharma biggies such as Astra Zeneca and Dr. Reddy's. Speaking to ET, Shri. Sharad Purohit, Director, C-DAC said he was offering a time-slot between 9 A.M. and 6 P.M. daily for access to the Bioinformatics Resources and Application Facility (BRAF), which includes PARAM computing power, as well as PSE. This access can be had after the payment of a nominal registration fee of Rs.1000. An introductory of six-month 'free usage' offer is on, with the scientific society under the Ministry of Communications and Information technology proposing to bring in nominal charges later.

A user can link to the supercomputer in the Bangalore C-DAC campus through the Net and carry out his work.

By: Sudha Nagaraj