Pune, April 26, 2004

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) announced the launch of two new products namely CDAC's Virtual Private Network (C-VPN) and CDAC-GISTYogeshN-OpenType font, at the Electronics and Information Technology Exposition (ELITEX) '2004 being held at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi during April 26-27, 2004. Organized by the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, the exposition was inaugurated by Dr. Arun Shourie, Hon'ble Minister for Disinvestment and Communications & Information Technology.

CDAC-GISTYogeshN-OpenType is an OpenType font for Devanagari script, developed by the GIST Group of C-DAC. It adheres to the OpenType specification and provides advanced typography features required for complex writing systems. The font supports all languages that employ the Devanagari script such as Hindi, Konkani, Marathi and so on. All the special features of the Devanagari script, namely the 'reph', 'rakar', 'akhands' (conjuncts), 'nukta', reordering and repositioning of characters, below-base forms, half forms have been implemented in this font. The glyph set of the font has also been optimized to get the best performance.

A notable feature of the exhibition is the Grid computing initiative of C-DAC. Christened as Garuda, the National Grid Initiative seeks to set up a network of supercomputers in the country to combine its supercomputing resources for more computational power as well as easier accessibility. The grid network, which will cover the entire nation, is touted as the next big challenge for C-DAC after it successfully delivered and deployed the PARAM Padma in 2002. The initiative is also slated to open the doors for scientists and researchers alike to tackle more complex problems and find the answers to questions that baffle researchers even today.

C-DAC is also showcasing its High Performance Computing solutions for the understanding of biological systems in terms of their underlying physical and chemical processes. This includes details of the various bioinformatics application codes developed and ported on the PARAM Padma, India's fastest supercomputer. The team is also conducting live demonstrations of the Problem Solving Environment (PSE) developed in-house on the PARAM Padma followed by a glimpse of the Bioinformatics Applications and Resources Facility (BRAF).

INTEGRA, a software for modeling and visualization of engineering structures is another highlight at the C-DAC stall. Extending the concept of "Write Once, Run Anywhere", it is a Platform Independent and standalone application based on the JAVA 3D technology. INTEGRA combines the functionalities of both the preprocessor and postprocessor for user convenience and finds application in Computational Structural and Fluid Mechanics.

C-DAC is also exhibiting several other products from its entire range of products and solutions like the Cybercheck Suite, a cyber forensics tool for law enforcement agencies, the Remotely Operated Mobile Platform for application in hazardous environments, TETRA Radio, System for Face Recognition, Multilingual Corpora, gLIB, a gaming library, e-Vidyapeeth, e-Sikshak and so on.

Speaking to the media, Shri. S. Ramakrishnan, Former Director General, C-DAC commented " As Indian talent is getting increasingly recognized in the knowledge industry, C-DAC, with its rich heritage of Research and Technology development in a broad spectrum of ICT and electronics areas over the last thirteen years, is uniquely placed to tap the opportunities and rise up to the challenges to be a live participant in the R&D hub that India promises to be in the coming years". Shri. Ramakrishnan also chaired a session on High Performance and Grid Computing on the first day of the exposition.

The scope of the exhibition has been enlarged this year to facilitate the official participation of all countries in the event. The official delegations from these countries are focusing on the potential tie-up and commercial possibilities for the technologies/services available in India.

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