The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai produced the first computer, the TIFRAC (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator). In the 1950s, a TIFR Pilot Machine was built (operational in 1956). The final machine was formally commissioned (and christened TIFRAC by Jawaharlal Nehru) in 1960 after development began in 1955. Until 1965, the entire machine was in use.
There were 2,700 vacuum tubes, 1,700 germanium diodes, and 12,500 resistors in TIFRAC. It had ferrite core memory with 2,048 40-bit words. This computer was one of the first to use ferrite core memory.
TIFRAC's main vacuum tube assembly was housed in a large steel rack measuring 18 feet x 2.5 feet x 8 feet. It was made up of 4 foot × 2.5 foot x 8-foot components. The circuits were accessible through steel doors on both sides of each module.
The development of a cathode ray tube display system as an auxiliary output to the computer for analog and digital display of
graphs and alpha-numeric symbols.
The input/output control device of the computer was a manual console. TIFRAC's software was written in a succession of 0s and 1s commands.
The first digital computer in India was a British-built HEC 2M computer, which was imported and installed in the
Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata in 1955. Prior to that, in 1953, this institute produced a modest analog computer, which is considered to be India's first computer.
