Ap To Get Param 10,000 For Data Warehousing

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a wing under the ministry of information technology, will install a four node `Param 10,000' super-computer for the Andhra Pradesh government next month.

The super-computer will act as a back-end support for the state's proposed data warehousing project. The scaleable hardware designed and to be installed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing is crucial in launching electronic governance. C-DAC, Hyderabad, will look after the installation.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing yesterday launched a training programme on Web technologies and Web-based learning. On the eve of inauguration, P Rama Rao, vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad said it is easy to use modern jargon like knowledge-based economy, but being a predominantly agriculture-based economy we are unable to deliver our farmers the knowledge about weather prediction.

He said the CRAY computer of the US has a weather code and is able to predict rainfall and droughts well in advance. He urged organisations like the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to develop parallel coding on important subjects like weather, seismic data processing and remote sensing to be able to face calamities efficiently

"It took eight months for the University of Hyderabad to get a 128 kilo bytes per second connectivity from the Software Technology Park of India, though it applied for a one mega byte connectivity. At this pace, it is a distant dream for India becoming an IT super power," said Rama Rao. Web-based learning requires a separate set of faculty with excellent skills, he added.

N Sarat Chandra Babu, head of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Hyderabad said the main issues in Web-Based Learning (WBL) are scalability, interactivity, inter-operability and inter-changeability.

"WBL allows percolation of high quality education from premier institutions to less privileged institutions. Realising the importance of Web learning, C-DAC has decided to take a lead role in developing an indigenous learner centric tool confirming to IEEE-LTSA standards, with innovative features for interactivity and scalability," said Sarat Chandra.

Attended by people all over the country, the training programme on WBL will be conducted every three months henceforth by C-DAC Hyderabad, said Sarat.