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PARAM 10000 to be presented to 12 institutions

The Department of Electronics has approved a scheme to present PARAM 10000 supercomputers to twelve premier educational institutions in the country including all Indian Institutes of Technology.

T O D A Y

• PC prices go up! • Govt readies for Y2K • PARAM to be gifted • GoT clears policy

The PARAM 10000 fabricated by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing is the most powerful computer in Asia, barring Japan.

CDAC Executive Director R K Arora told visiting journalists in Pune recently that the PARAM configuration would also be built at BITS Pilani and the Roorkee Engineering College among others.

The cost of the three-year project is estimated to be Rs 75 million.

This will help produce high quality of trained labour in the fast changing computer industry.

The CDAC, a computer arm of the DoE, not only focuses on producing software and hardware but also most importantly finding cost-effective solutions to problems being faced by infrastructure setups like the Oil and Natural Gas Commission. It also looks for opportunities in telecommunications, space, power and ports.

As part of its third mission, already approved by the government, the CDAC will soon foray into, telemedicine and distance education.

Three top-class medical institutions in the country will be linked through supercomputers to provide high quality medical advice including visual access to surgery through the network.

These hospitals will be linked to a cluster of nearby hospitals, from which doctors can obtain expert medical opinion and treat their patients better, according to an official release.

Under its distance education programme, CDAC will select the engineering colleges and train their students with its own course via the Internet.

This will have a large multiplier effect and provide additional qualification. A large number of colleges have expressed desire to have this as an extension programme.

On the commercial side CDAC has sold and erected a PARAM 10000 in Singapore. It will soon be doing one in Moscow, for which negotiations are underway.

The denial of Cray supercomputer to India by the US was a blessing in disguise because it has led the country to come out with PARAM 10000.

About Y2K, Arora said 50 per cent compliance has already been achieved and CDAC should be completely rid of the millennium bug by September.

UNI

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