The Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications (IIT) is one of the 6 research institutes of the National Centre for Scientific Research (NCSR) "Demokritos". The institute was established in 1985 and started its operation in its present form in 1987 by merging the Divisions of Computers and Electronics of the Center.
Actually, the research activities of the Institute - under the name of Division of Electronics - began in 1958, rendering the Division as the pioneer electronics center in Greece. These activities ranged over many fields of applications, such as the design and development of special electronic systems, nuclear electronics, industrial electronic control devices, digital electronics and medical electronics.
The Computer Division was founded in 1968 with the initial aim of supporting the research and data-storing computing needs of NCSR "Demokritos". The Computer Center was developed at the same time for specific computing applications and various other research activities of NCSR "Demokritos". One of the first achievements of the Computer Division was Proteas, the first experimental 16-bit digital computer designed in Greece. Proteas was user programmable and its construction was completed in 1970.
Till 1975, "Demokritos" was the only organization in Greece, where research in Electronics and Informatics was carried out. As a result, around 25 members of staff of IIT have been invited to join various departments of Informatics of Greek Universities.
In 1975, the Division of Electronics extented its activities in Digital Telecommunications and especially, in the development of encrypted communication systems.
The two Divisions of Electronics and Computers continued their activities independently till 1987, when after appropriate mergings the Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications, the Institute of Microelectronics and the Computer Center were established.
