Rulebook for PG-Diploma in HPC Domain

NSM Capacity Building Initiative

Admission rulebook for the candidates who belong to Scheduled Caste

(SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities of India to join C-DAC,
ACTS’s PG-Diploma in HPC domain.

NSM PG-Diploma in HPC domain March 2024 batch V1.0

 Table of Contents

Contents

NSM Capacity Building Initiative .................................................................................................................................................... 1

1. Preamble.................................................................................................................................................................................... 2
2. About Post Graduate Diploma Course in HPC Domains ......................................................................................... 2
2.1. Benefits....................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
3. Who can apply for the PG Diploma courses in HPC domain? ............................................................................... 3
4. Training Centres and Seat Capacity ................................................................................................................................. 4
5. Admission Process to PG-Diploma Course ................................................................................................................... 4
5.1. NSM C-CAT Application Process ...................................................................................................................................... 4
5.2. NSM C-CAT Admit Cards..................................................................................................................................................... 5
5.3. NSM C-DAC’s Common Admission Test (C-CAT)....................................................................................................... 5
5.4. NSM C-CAT Ranking ............................................................................................................................................................. 5
5.5. Counselling & Seat Allocation Process........................................................................................................................... 6
5.6. Caution Deposit ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6
5.7. Document Verification.......................................................................................................................................................... 6
6. PG Diploma in HPC domains Training: ........................................................................................................................... 7
6.1. Stipend ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
7. C-DAC Course End Examination ....................................................................................................................................... 7
8. C-DAC Common Campus Placement (CCPP)............................................................................................................... 7
9. Refund of Caution Deposit ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Annexure A: PG-DHPCSA course details ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Annexure B: PG-DHPCAP course details................................................................................................................................... 14
Annexure C: Syllabus of NSM C-CAT ......................................................................................................................................... 19
Annexure D: Important Dates ....................................................................................................................................................... 20
Annexure E: Additional Terms & Conditions ........................................................................................................................... 21
Annexure F: Flowchart for PG-Diploma Course ..................................................................................................................... 23

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1. Preamble
This RULE BOOK is a guide for the aspiring candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste
(SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities to join the Post Graduate Diploma courses
in High Performance Computing domains. It provides the details of the courses, how to
apply, process of admission, selection criteria, entrance examination and its syllabus,
documentations, fees, and scholarship.

C-DAC is implementing the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM nsmindia.in), a

capacity building initiative of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY),
Government of India.

The objective of the project is to develop technology professionals hailing from

Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities, having graduation in
Engineering or Post Graduate in Science in selected disciplines, in High Performance
Computing (HPC) domains to meet skill and capability building objectives of the NSM.

There are two domains identified to develop the expertise which are the followings:

1. High Performance Computing System Administration

2. High Performance Computing Application Programming

C-DAC has designed and curated the curriculum for the above HPC domains to imbibe
the technical skills amongst the aspiring candidates through these two courses to the
youth of India to become experts who will work in the HPC domain.

2. About Post Graduate Diploma Course in HPC Domains

The two courses offered are 900 hours duration (NSQF level 8 aligned courses)

1. Post Graduate Diploma courses in HPC System Administration (PG-DHPCSA) and

2. Post Graduate Diploma in HPC Application Programming (PG-DHPCAP).

The details of the courses syllabus and objectives, educational eligibility are provided in
the Annexure A & B.

The course requires the candidates to dedicate 6-8 hours per day for six days a week to
cover the 900 hours in about 24 weeks in physical classroom and lab sessions. At the
end of the course, students meeting 75% attendance and other criteria will be eligible to
appear in the C-DAC's Common Course End Examination (CCEE). Students successful in
the examination will receive a certificate of PG-Diploma.

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 2.1. Benefits
The selected candidates will benefit with the followings:

1. Candidate will get adequate knowledge and exposure in HPC domain that provides
solid foundations for developing, analysing, and implementing HPC Systems.
2. Help candidates from officially designated socially disadvantaged groups (SC & ST) in
India.
3. The PG-Diploma courses in HPC domain are free (the usual course fees ranging from
INR 90,000/- to 1,15,000/- per student) for the selected candidates. However, a
caution deposit of INR 10,000/- will be taken. Please see Refund of Caution Deposit
section for details.
4. Candidates’ active participation and completion of the PG-Diploma course
successfully will provide them with the gateway and an edge in the HPC domain to
perform better in the Common Campus Placement Program (CCPP) of the March
2024 batch.

3. Who can apply for the PG Diploma courses in HPC domain?

1. Candidate must belong to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes communities in
India.

2. Candidate must be Graduate in Engineering (10+2+4 or 10+3+3 years) in IT /

Computer Science / Electronics / Telecommunications / Electrical / Instrumentation, OR
MSc / MS (10+2+3+2 years) in Computer Science, IT, Electronics OR Post Graduate
Degree in Mathematics or allied areas, OR MCA from a recognised University.
Candidates having Post Graduate Degree in Physics / Computational Sciences are
eligible for PG-DHPCAP course.

3. Candidate must have secured 55% or above in the qualifying degree.

4. There is no age restriction for admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma courses. Candidates

who have appeared for the final examination of their qualifying degree in 2023 will also
be considered for admission to the above courses. By qualifying in C-DAC's admission
tests of January 2024, such university result-awaiting candidates can apply for
provisional admission in March 2024 batch, subject to the condition that:

(a) All parts of their qualifying degree examination shall be completed by the date
of joining the course, and
(b) Proof of having passed the qualifying degree with at least the required
minimum marks shall be submitted at C-DAC by 30 June 2024.
5. A candidate can avail PG-Diploma course benefits only once.

There is no fees for NSM C-CAT Application for eligible candidates.

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 Policies / Rules of C-DAC ACTS regarding admission process, course delivery and
additional terms and conditions given in Annexure ‘E’ shall apply.

4. Training Centres and Seat Capacity

The Post Graduation Diploma in HPC domains courses will be conducted at below
training centre:

C-DAC’s Advanced Computing Training School (ACTS),

C-DAC Innovation Park, Panchawati, Pashan,
Pune-411008 (Maharashtra)

The seating capacity for both courses is 40 seats each.

5. Admission Process to PG-Diploma Course

5.1. NSM C-CAT Application Process
a. Instruction for applicants wishing to apply to NSM courses in addition to
other PG-Diploma courses (Paid)

Eligible candidates who wish to apply to other PG-Diploma courses of C-DAC ACTS
and also apply for the NSM PG-Diploma courses in HPC domain must apply for both
separately. Candidate must follow the steps given here under to be consider for the
both regular C-CAT and NSM C-CAT.

1. Candidate must first complete the application process for the regular
C-CAT and pay prescribed fees.
2. Candidate must have selected appropriate degree, discipline, passing marks,
and Category II (Section A+B) in the regular C-CAT application form to be
eligible for applying for both.
3. Thereafter, at the NSM PG-Diploma courses application form, candidate
need to select option to check their eligibility, and if found eligible, can
‘one-click apply’ for the NSM PG-Diploma courses.
A new application form will be generated having same Form No. as that of regular
C-CAT application, and only one combined Admit Card/Hall Ticket will be issued later.
Candidate appearing in exam using issued combined Admit Card/Hall Ticket will give
the exam only once but he/she will be ranked separately under regular and NSM
C-CAT.

Admission to NSM PG-Diploma courses is given based on ranking obtained in

NSM C-CAT only. The ranking obtained in regular C-CAT cannot be consider for
Admission under NSM PG-Diploma courses or vice-versa.

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5.2. NSM C-CAT Admit Cards
Candidates can download their admit cards from C-DAC’s website during the dates
mentioned under Important Dates in the Annexure D. The venue, date and time of
NSM C-CAT will be communicated to the candidates on the admit cards. Instructions
for appearing in NSM C-CAT will also be given on the admit card. Candidates must
appear for NSM C-CAT on the date and time at the venue specified on the admit
card. If the candidate remains absent or coming late for NSM C-CAT, no further
chance will be given to candidate.

No candidate will be permitted to appear for NSM C-CAT without a valid admit card.
The admit card along with a photo identity proof must be presented to the NSM C-
CAT officials/invigilators for verification at the time of the test.

5.3. NSM C-DAC’s Common Admission Test (C-CAT)

NSM C-DAC's Common Admission Test (C-CAT) will be conducted in computerised
mode physically at C-DAC’s test centres on January 13 & 14, 2024. Candidates who
clear the NSM C-CAT will only be considered for admission to C-DAC’s PG Diploma
course in HPC in System Administration or PG Diploma in HPC Application
Programming of upcoming batches on the basis of their NSM C-CAT ranks.

NSM C-CAT has two sections (Section A and B) of one hour duration each. The
medium of C-CAT is English.

Every section in NSM C-CAT will have 50 objective-type questions. Each question will
have four choices as possible answers of which only one will be correct. There will be
+3 (plus three) marks for each correct answer, -1 (minus one) for each wrong answer,
and 0 (zero) marks for each un-attempted question. The maximum mark a candidate
can obtain in any one section of NSM C-CAT is 150.

5.4. NSM C-CAT Ranking

Candidates will be provided ranks based on their performances in Section A, Sections
A+B, of NSM C-CAT.

Candidates with the lowest 20% performances in section A and section B of NSM C-
CAT will not be qualified for ranking in that particular section and its higher sections.
Even after the removal of the lowest performers as stated above, if there exist
candidates in any section with zero or less than zero marks, then these candidates will
also not be qualified for ranking.

Qualified candidates who have selected Category II in the C-CAT application form will
be awarded Category I and II ranks based on their performances in Sections A and
A+B.

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 Tie-Breaker Rule: If two or more candidates have acquired the same marks in
Section A or Sections A+B, then the candidate having more marks in Section A will be
given the higher rank. If these candidates have the same marks in Section A also, then
the candidate having higher value in the ratio of ‘number of correct answers /
number of attempted questions’ in the specific section required only for that
category of courses will be given the higher rank. Candidates who have the same
value of this ratio, and having the same total as well as Section-A marks will be given
the same NSM C-CAT rank.

5.5. Counselling & Seat Allocation Process

C-DAC’s PG Diploma admission process has two counselling sessions and three
rounds of seat allocations. Counselling means online filling of preferences of
courses and training centres by the candidates.

There are two rounds of seat allocations based on the first counselling. This means
that using the course-centre preferences given by the candidates during the first
choice filling, two rounds of seat allocations (Round 1 and Round 2) will be done.

Ranking obtained in NSM C-CAT will be used for applying to NSM PG-Diploma HPC
courses.

5.6. Caution Deposit

The candidates must confirm the seat allocated during the counselling rounds of the
Admission Process to PG Diploma courses in HPC domains by depositing the caution
money INR 10,000/- as per timeline mentioned in Important dates (Annexure D). This
amount is retained as an interest-free caution deposit which will be refunded to the
candidates as per refund section mentioned below.

5.7. Document Verification

The candidates allocated PG-Diploma course through counselling must undergo a
document verification process physically conducted at ACTS, C-DAC Pune. The
candidate must produce clear photocopies along with original documents of their
Government provided Identity proof, caste, and educational certifications during the
physical document verification process.

Candidates qualified after Document verification will be registered for PG-Diploma

courses.

Candidates should ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria of the courses for
which they are applying. It shall be incumbent upon candidates to prove they meet
the prescribed eligibility criteria at the time of taking admission at allocated centre.
Issuance of Admit Card and/or NSM C-CAT rank does not automatically entitle a
candidate to admission. In case a candidate is found to be non-eligible during

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 any stage of the admission process or course delivery, his/her admission will be
cancelled with immediate effect.

6. PG Diploma in HPC domains Training:

The candidates will join the C-DAC ACTS Pune to pursue the PG Diploma in HPC
training as per the scheduled commencement on March 05, 2024.

The students have to attend the PG-Diploma course physically at the training centre
and must mark their attendance regularly with a minimum of 75% attendance to take
the maximum benefit of the theory and practical sessions conducted by the training
centre.

The student must inform the course coordinator for any absence without fail.
Students must adhere to general decorum, rules, do’s and don’ts, and any prescribed
rules and regulation by C-DAC from time to time.

6.1. Stipend
A stipend at the rate of INR 1500/- per month, will be provided to the student for six
months. The stipend will be provided in two instalments at the end of each three
months periods subject to student maintaining 75% attendance for that period. The
stipend will be deposited in the account of the student.

There will be no other amount paid to the students such as accommodation or travel
or food during the training period. The students must make their own arrangements
of stay and food during their stay at Pune. C-DAC, ACTS Pune does not have any
hostel facility for accommodation of the students.

7. C-DAC Course End Examination

The PG-Diploma students on completion of the training and having a minimum of 75%
attendance will be allowed to attend the C-DAC Course End Examination (CCEE) as per
the schedule. The result and certificates will be issued to the students successful in the
examination. Policies/Rules of C-DAC ACTS in this regard shall apply.

8. C-DAC Common Campus Placement (CCPP)

Students who qualify the CCEE and successfully complete the PG-Diploma courses will be
allowed to participate in the Common Campus Placement Programme (CCPP).
Policies/Rules of C-DAC ACTS in this regard shall apply.

9. Refund of Caution Deposit

An amount of INR 10,000/- retained as interest-free caution deposit will be refunded to
the student fulfilling both of following criteria:

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 Attendance of minimum 75% of the in PG-Diploma course duration
 Appear in CCEE of the March 2024 batch

Additionally, the caution deposit or a portion thereof may be forfeited on any of the
following grounds:

 Penalty against any breakage, misplacement, etc. of property of training centre

 Penalty towards any disciplinary action

The refund of the caution deposit will be done 15 working days after the CCEE
conduction and submitting the clearance form.

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Annexure A: PG-DHPCSA course details

PG-Diploma in HPC System Administration (PG-DHPCSA)

Course Objectives:
PG-DHPCSA will educate the aspirants who want to make an impact in the corporate and
academic world in the domain of High Performance Computing system administration as
System Administrator, Storage Administrator and IT Infrastructure Specialist. The course is
also suitable for those who are already working in HPC administration domain to enhance
their theoretical and conceptual knowledge as well as those who would like to start career in
HPC administration. The collaboration with the different multi-national companies at the
level of mutual research interests and customer related projects will ease the path for
campus recruitment. At the end of the course the students will be able to manage HPC
infrastructure like network, storage, resource and backup management, efficiently design
data center, maintain the HADOOP cluster and map reduce technology, explore on HPC
applications and solutions, and understand the fundamentals of various cloud techniques
and system security.

Course Focus:
The theoretical and practical mix of the HPC System Administration program has the
following learning objectives:
 Fundamental knowledge of High-Performance computing and applications.
 HPC Cluster architecture, Clustering, resource allocation and job scheduling tools,
Parallel file systems, Designing Data Centers, Troubleshooting techniques and various
other tools for administration and monitoring.
 Hadoop and Map reduce Concepts, designing Hadoop cluster for big data
applications.
 Virtualization and Cloud computing technologies, accessing resources and services
needed to perform functions with dynamically changing needs.
 Network and Cloud security concepts to create secure development environment,
recognizing security loopholes and strengthening the solutions.
 DevOps and automation using container technology and scripting.
 Undertaking industrial research projects for the development of future solutions in
the domain of HPC Administration to make an impact in the technological
advancement.

Eligibility Criteria:
 Graduate in Engineering (10+2+4 or 10+3+3 years) in IT / Computer Science /
Electronics / Telecommunications / Electrical / Instrumentation.
OR
 MSc/MS (10+2+3+2 years) in Computer Science, IT, Electronics.
OR
 Post Graduate Degree in Mathematics or allied areas,
OR
 MCA
Candidate must have secured 55% or above in the qualifying degree.

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Pre-requisites:
Candidate should have sound knowledge of Fundamentals of Programming, C programming,
and basics of Linux.

Admission Process:
Admission will be through NSM C-CAT (Sec A + B).

Course Modules:

Sr. No. Name of the Module No. of Hours

1. Computer Architecture 30
2. Linux Operating System and Perl 80
3. HPC System Administration and Management 140
4. Python Programming 60
5. Fundamental of Computer Network and Management 40
6. Storage and Backup Management 50
7. Resource Management and Accounting 50
8. Security and Traffic Management 70
9. Hadoop Administration 80
10. Cloud Services & Security 100
11. Aptitude & Effective Communication 90
12. Project 110
Total Hours 900

Course Content:

1. Computer Architecture (30 Hours)

Basic concepts of computer organization, Classes of computer architecture, Processor vs.
System architecture, Elements of computer systems, CISC vs. RISC architectures,
pipelining, Multi core Processor architecture, Memory Hierarchy, Cache memory, Cache
coherency, Standard IO interfaces, GPU elements, Compute GPU Architecture, overview
of the latest Intel, AMD, ARM, POWER processors.

2. Linux Operating System and Perl (80 Hours)

Linux: Introduction to Operating System and it’s Architecture, Process Management,
Signals, Systems Concepts, Processes Scheduling & synchronization, Memory
management, File System management, Introduction to Linux, Startup Files, Linux boot
process, Installation of Linux, Disk partitioning, Controlling and managing Services, Basic
Linux commands, User administration of Linux, Network Configuring, Network

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 Monitoring and Troubleshooting (netstat/iproute2), System Configuration Files, Perform
System Management, Maintenance and troubleshooting, Basic Service Security, Log
Management, Network Authentication.
Shell Scripting: Introduction to BASH Command Line Interface (CLI) Error Handling,
Debugging & Redirection of scripts Control Structure, Loop, Variable & String,
Conditional Statement Regular Expressions, Automate Task Using Bash Script, Security
patches, Logging & Monitoring using script.
Perl: Control structure and loops, Useful/necessary functions to memorize, Array
Functions, Hash Functions, Array and hash manipulation, Inbuilt special variables Regular
Expressions basics, File Handling, Introduction to Modules and Packages, Database
Connectivity.

3. HPC System Administration and Management (140 Hours)

Basics of Data Center Design Management
Data center overview, Real life issues on design, Cabinets, Power, cooling, Cable
Management, Safety, efficient design and planning a strategy, Collecting the heat, Heat
rejection or reuse, Liquid cooling, Energy use systems, Data Centre Metrics, Best
Practices, Fire Protection and Security Systems.
Design of HPC Cluster – Ecosystem
Requirement Analysis, building blocks of HPC, Hardware and software selection process,
Design of HPC Cluster, Cluster Planning, Architecture and Cluster software, Cluster
building tools, Multicore architecture, Accelerator cards, Configuring & setting
environment for accelerator cards, Latest trends and technologies in HPC.
HPC System Management and Monitoring
IPMI, HMC, User management, LDAP, NIS, Node resources, processor usage, memory
usage, network usage, statistics, network monitoring, monitoring tools (Ganglia, Collectl,
Graphite, nagios and XD mod), System Benchmarking, theoretical peak performance, HPL
bench mark, Tuning HPL, OSU Benchmark / IO Benchmark, HPCG Benchmark, Micro
benchmarking, macro benching, Application benchmarking and check the scalability of
the applications, Ticketing tools for support.
Case study of HPC solutions like Param Shavak

4. Python Programming (60 Hours)

Introduction to Python, Python basics, Data Types and variables Operators, Looping &
Control Structure, List, Modules, Dictionaries, String, Regular Expressions, Functions and
Functional Programming, Object Oriented Linux Scripting Environment, Classes, Objects
and OOPS concepts, File and Directory Access Permissions, Libraries and Functionality
Programming, Writing plugins in Python, Data analysis Automation Process, Debugging
basics, Task Automation with Python.

5. Fundamental of Computer Network and Management (40 Hours)

Introduction to communication system, issues in Computer Networking, OSI Layers,
TCP/IP Models, Networking Protocols, IP Addressing and Routing, Network Devices (Hub,
Switch, Router), Interconnect networks, Types of Interconnect networks, Gigabit Ethernet,

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 InfiniBand, Omni Path Architecture(OPA), types of protocol supported, Communication
subnet, Interconnect networks subsystem: HCA, FC ports and other supported
accessories, Network monitoring.

6. Storage and Backup Management (50 Hours)

Types of Storage, Protocols, Components of a disk drive, physical disk and factors
affecting disk drive performance. RAID level performance and availability considerations,
Components and benefits of an intelligent storage system, (DAS) architecture, (SAN)
attributes, components, topologies, connectivity options and zoning, FC protocol stack,
addressing, flow control, and classes of service, storage replication & HSM, Network
Attached Storage (NAS) components, protocols, IP Storage Area Network (IP SAN) iSCSI,
FCIP and FCoE architecture, Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
Parallel File Systems
Introduction to Parallel File Systems, types of Parallel File Systems, PVFS2, Lustre, BeeGFS,
GPSF, Components, Installation and configuration, benchmarking, comparison of Parallel
File Systems, Optimization.
Backup management
Backup, Backup tools, Types of backup, backup policies, Archive, retrieve, backup
optimization, restore, Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM), Backup media (LTO),
Tape library.

7. Resource Management and Accounting (50 Hours)

Resource manager, Batch systems, Scheduler, various open source schedulers in HPC PBS
Pro, Slurm, SGE, Components of resource manager, installation and configuration of
Slurm and PBS Pro, submitting and managing jobs, Writing the batch script , Application
level check pointing, Managing nodes, setting server scheduling policies, scheduler
integration, Maui, Moab, MPI support, Accounting records, Gold.

8. Security and Traffic management (70 Hours)

Security Fundamentals, Risk Management, Exposure and Countermeasure, DMZ,
Firewalls, Types of Firewalls, Limitations of firewall, firewalld, Threat Management
Gateway, Web Application Firewall, Packet capturing, Packet Signature and Analysis,
Reverse proxy, Virtual Private Networks, Deploy and managing VPN, VPN Performance
tuning and error handling, VPN routing, Hybrid VPN, IPSec, CA, SSL/TLS Certificate
generation, HMAC, Cryptography, L2TP/PPTP, Intrusion Detection And Prevention,
Intrusion risks, Security policy, Monitoring and reporting of traffics, Traffic shaping,
Investigating and verifying detected intrusions, Recovering from, reporting and
documenting intrusions, Define the Types of intrusion Prevention Systems, Intrusion
prevention system basics, Limitations of Intrusion Prevention System, Spoof Prevention,
Dos, Ddos, QoS Policy, Nagios and Snort configuration.

9. Hadoop Administration (80 Hours)

Hadoop Framework: What is Hadoop, Why Hadoop, History of Hadoop, Use Cases of
Hadoop, Hadoop eco system, HDFS, Hadoop Distributed File System, HDFS Architecture,
Name Nodes, Data Nodes, Secondary Name Node, Command Line Interface, Reading
and Writing Date, Hadoop on YARN

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 Map Reduce: Map Operation, Map Reduce Anatomy, Job Submissions, Job Initialization,
Task Assignment, Job Completion, Job Scheduling, Job Failures, Shuffle and sort, Word
Count Problem, Word Count Flow and Solution, Word Count Flow and Solution.
Hadoop Environment: Setting up a Hadoop Cluster, Cluster specification, Cluster Setup
and Installation, Hadoop Configuration, Security in Hadoop (Security System Concepts
used in Hadoop, Hadoop Cluster With LDAP), Administering Hadoop, HDFS – Monitoring
& Maintenance (Data transfer Between Clusters, Adding and Removing Nodes, Cluster
Rebalancing), Hadoop benchmarks.

10. Cloud Services & Security (100 Hours)

Cloud Computing: Definition, Characteristics, Components, Cloud provider, SAAS, PAAS,
IAAS and other Organizational scenarios of clouds, Administering & Monitoring cloud
services, benefits and limitations, Deploy application over cloud. Comparison among
SAAS, PAAS, IAAS, Cloud computing platforms: Infrastructure as service: Amazon EC2,
Platform as Service: Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure Utility Computing, Elastic
Computing, SLA, clusters, cloud analytics, challenges of cloud environment, HPC and
Hadoop in the cloud.
Cloud Technologies: Virtualization, Virtual machine provisioning, virtualization
applications in enterprises, Pitfalls of virtualization, Multitenant software: Multi-entity
support, Multi-schema approach, Multi-tenancy using cloud data stores, Data access
control for enterprise applications, OVirt, OpenStack.
Security in Cloud: Cloud security fundamentals, Vulnerability assessment tool for cloud,
Privacy and Security in cloud, Cloud computing security architecture: Architectural
Considerations- General Issues, Trusted Cloud computing, Secure Execution
Environments and Communications, Micro-architectures; Identity Management and
Access Control- Identity management, Access control, Autonomic Security. Cloud
computing security challenges: Virtualization security management- virtual threats, VM
Security Recommendations, VM-Specific Security techniques, Secure Execution
Environments and Communications in cloud.
Container based technologies, Automation and administration: Introduction to
DevOps, Version controlling, GIT, Branching and Merging, Workflow, Jenkins, Maven,
Docker, Containers, Microservices platforms, Kubernetes.

11. Aptitude & Effective Communication (90 Hours)

12. Project (110 Hours)

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Annexure B: PG-DHPCAP course details

PG Diploma in HPC Application Programming (PG-DHPCAP)

Course Objective:
The theoretical and practical mix of the HPC Software development programs has the
following objectives:
 To explore the fundamental concepts of Parallel programming and HPC Solutions and
their applications.
 To develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of the High-Performance
Computing domain.
 To learn the use of various HPC tools.
 To understand the applications using Map Reduce Concepts, OpenMP, CUDA, MPI,
OpenACC.
 Basic introduction to ML, DL and AI

Course Focus:
 To design artificial intelligence enabled products and services for real world problems
 To understand accelerated computing and its capability in reducing ML/DL/AI
workloads by evaluating algorithms in Machine Learning and Deep Learning.
 To efficiently use HPC infrastructure in AI workloads.
 To understand and apply various parallel programming libraries like CUDA, MPI, Python
for parallel computing to implement HPC Solutions

Eligibility Criteria:
 Graduate in Engineering (10+2+4 or 10+3+3 years) in IT / Computer Science /
Electronics / Telecommunications / Electrical / Instrumentation.
OR
 MSc/MS (10+2+3+2 years) in Computer Science, IT, Electronics.
OR
 Post Graduate Degree in Physics/ Computational Sciences/ Mathematics or allied areas,
OR
 MCA

Candidate must have secured 55% or above in the qualifying degree

Pre-requisites: Candidates should have sound knowledge of Fundamentals of

Programming, C programming, and basics of Linux.

Admission Process:
Admission will be through NSM C-CAT (Sec A + B).

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 Course Module:

Sr. No. Module Name No. of hours

1. Programming Concepts 120
2. Linux shell scripting, Perl, and PHP 60
3. Computer Architecture & Interconnects and Co-processor 60
4. Cloud Computing & Deployment Strategies 60
5. Analytics & Statistics using Python 80
6. Parallel programming and Numerical Methods 150
7. Introduction to High-Performance Computational 60
Programming
8. Introduction to CUDA Programming OpenACC and SYCL 60
9. Introduction to AI and OpenVino 60
10. Aptitude & Effective Communication 90
11. Project 100
Total Hours 900

Course Content:
1. Programming Concepts (120 Hours)

Software Engineering concepts (4 Hours)

C, C++ Programming and Data Structure (54 Hours)
Difference between C and C++, pointers and Arrays using Pointers
Classes and Objects, Access Specifiers, Overloading, Inheritance, Polymorphism
Algorithms & Data Structures using C
Stacks, Queues, Linked Lists (Singly, Doubly, Circular), Trees, Graphs, Sorting (Bubble, Quick,
Heap, Merge)
Java Programming (40 Hours)
Data Types, Operators and Language, Constructs, Inner Classes and Inheritance, Interface
and Package, Exceptions, Threads, Java.lang, Java.util, Java. awt, Java.io.
FORTRAN & Go Language (20 Hours)
Programs, Arithmetic Operations, Subroutines, Functions, Modules, Interface Formatting, and
File Handling, Arrays, Pointers, Derived Data Types, Use of Program Libraries
Go Programming Overview, Environment Setup, Program Structure, Basic Syntax, Data Types,
Variables, Constants, Operators, Decision Making Statements, Loops, Functions.

2. Linux shell scripting, Perl, and PHP (60 Hours)

Linux shell scripting (30 Hours)

Linux Commands, Processes scheduling & synchronization, Memory management, File
Systems, Shell Scripting, Package Managers (RPM, APM, etc.)

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 Perl Scripting (20 Hours)
Perl Fundamentals, Control structure and loops, Useful/necessary functions to memorize,
Array Functions, Hash Functions, Array and hash manipulation, Inbuilt special variables,
Regular Expressions basics, File Handling, Introduction to Modules and Packages, Database
Connectivity.
PHP (10 Hours)
Introduction to PHP, Working with arrays, Functions, Forms, Handling date and Times,
Working with Files

3. Computer Architecture & Interconnects and Co-processor (60 Hours)

Computer Architecture and Interconnects (40 Hours)

Basic concepts of computer organization, Classes of computer architecture, Processor vs.
System architecture, Elements of computer systems, Goals of computer architecture, Memory
Hierarchy, CISC vs. RISC architectures. Multi-Processor architecture, Memories and Caches,
Cache coherency, Standard I/O interfaces GPU elements, An overview of the latest Intel
processor., Distributed systems, cluster computing, grid computing, connectivity
architectures, etc., SMP & NUMA, PCI
Introduction to communication system, issues in Computer Networking, OSI Layers, TCP/IP
Models, Discussion of Networking Protocols, IP Addressing and Routing, Hub, Switch, Router,
Interconnect Network (types, GB ethernet, OmniPath Architecture, and Infiniband)
Introduction to Processor & Co-processor Architectures (20 Hours)
Introduction to processor architecture.
Introduction to different processor Architectures: Intel, AMD, ARM, IBM Power
Introduction to Co-processors: Intel, Nvidia- GPU, FPGA, Cross Compilation techniques.

4. Cloud Computing & Deployment Strategies (60 Hours)

Cloud Computing & Operations (33 Hours)

Introduction to Cloud Computing: Definition, Characteristics, Components, Cloud provider,
SAAS, PAAS, IAAS and other Organizational scenarios of clouds, Administering & Monitoring
cloud services, benefits and limitations, Deploy application over clouds. Comparison among
SAAS, PAAS, IAAS, Cloud computing platforms: Infrastructure as service: Amazon EC2,
Platform as Service: Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure Utility Computing, Elastic
Computing, SLA, clusters, cloud analytics, challenges of cloud environment, Bare Metal
Provisioning, HPC in the cloud, OpenStack and introduction to cloud stack
Introduction to Cloud Technologies: Hypervisors, Architecture of hypervisors, Compare
SOAP and REST Web services, AJAX and mashups-Web services: SOAP and REST, SOAP
versus REST, AJAX: asynchronous 'rich' interfaces, Mashups: user interface services.
Virtualization, Virtual machine provisioning, virtualization applications in enterprises, Pitfalls
of virtualization, Multitenant software: Multi-entity support, Multi-schema approach, Multi-

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 tenancy using cloud data stores, Data access control for enterprise applications
Platforms & Deployment Strategies (27 Hours)
Spack
Virtualization: Virtualization Basics, Virtual machine provisioning, virtualization applications
in enterprises, Pitfalls of virtualization.
Containers: Container orchestration system, docker, singularity, Kubernetes orchestration
system. hands on sessions using any container.
Internet of Things: IoT definitions, End Devices, Gateways, IoT platforms, Reference
architecture, Introduction to IoT devices, Sensors and Actuators, Case studies of IoT solutions
Analytics & Statistics using Python (80 Hours)
Data Manipulation, Web Scraping, NumPy & Pandas, Data Pre-processing, Data
Manipulation, Data Visualization, Basics of Statistics and Statistical Analytics, Exploratory
Data Analysis (EDA), Probability and Distribution functions, Inferential Statistics, Regression-
Linear & Logistics, Random Processes

5. Parallel Programming and Numerical Methods (150 Hours)

Uniprocessor optimization and Pthreads (15 Hours)

Compiler level optimizations, Arithmetic optimizations, loop unrolling, loop fusion, loop
interchange, Loop invariant code motion, Inlining, Pthreads Overview, What is thread,
What are Pthreads, Why Pthreads, Designing Threaded Programs, Pthreads APIs, Creating
and Terminating Threads, Passing Arguments to Threads, Joining and Detaching Threads,
Stack Management, Miscellaneous Routines, Mutex Variables, and Condition Variables, DPDK
/SPDK libraries
Performance Metrics – Speed-up, efficiency, Amdahl’s Law, weak/strong scalability,
performance/watt, performance/$, Arithmetic Intensity (FLOPS/Bytes)
OpenMP (50 Hours)
Why OpenMP, OpenMP Programming Model, OpenMP constructs, Case-Studies (Algorithms
and Parallelization Approaches), Matrix –Matrix-multiplication.
Introduction to OpenMP4.0
Message Passing Interface (55 Hours)
Basic MPI, MPI Point – to Point, MPI Collective Communication: Data Synchronization, Data
Movement, Collective Computation. Advance MPI: Derived Data Types, Derived Types,
Special type Constructors, Type Matching, Packing/Unpacking Data, Groups, and
Communicators: Virtual Topologies, MPI3 Standard, and MPI Threads, Case Studies
(Algorithms and Parallelization Approaches), Micro benchmarking, macro benching.
Application benchmarking and check the scalability of the applications
Numerical Methods in Science & Engineering (30 Hours)
Approximations and Round-Off errors, Truncation errors, Roots of equations. Roots of
Polynomials. Linear Algebraic Equations: Gauss Elimination, Matrix Inversion. Regression and
Interpolation. Numerical Integration. Numerical Differentiation. Numerical solution of
ordinary and partial differential equations. Case studies include sequential and parallel
algorithms. Introduction to Algorithms for scientific domains: Monte Carlo, SIMPLE algorithm
for Navier-Stokes equation in CFD, Finite Volume Method, FFTW. Monte Carlo Methods:
Pseudo-random number generators, parallel random number generation, Monte Carlo
methods for numerical integration and simulation, applications (e.g., radiation transport and

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 network simulation) Data Management: Introduction to data management, Parallel file
systems and parallel I/O, Scientific data formats and libraries (e.g., NetCDF, and HDF5),
Input/Output using MPI, Data intensive computing (distributed file systems and MapReduce),
SPARK, Web interface and protocols for data exchange (e.g. OPeNDAP), Workflows for data
processing, Benchmarking and profiling data intensive applications
Application Domains – Basics of different domains, algorithms, parallelism, computational
characteristics, optimization of computational performance of applications, Case Studies

6. Introduction to High-Performance Computational Programming (60 Hours)

Introduction to High-Performance Computing Profiling and debugging tools &

Application Optimization (50 Hours)
Profiling and Debugging of codes tools: Roof-line model, gprof, perf, Intel Vtune, gdb,
Performance libraries like mkl, lapack, fft, Analysis tools like: ITAC, MPI libraries. Demo of the
sample code by using the above tools,
Micro-benchmarks - memory bandwidth, HPL, NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB), Interconnect
benchmarks (e.g. OSU), Storage benchmarks
Introduction to micro-architecture analysis tools: LIKWID
Resource Management & Monitoring tools, Schedulers & Job Submission (10 Hours)
Introduction to different HPC monitoring tools - ganglia, C-Chakshu, Grafana, Prometheus
Basics of scheduling, Introduction to resource management tools, Introduction to PBS,
Torque and SLURM
Job Submission: Writing the batch job script, submission, monitoring. Application level
checkpointing

7. Introduction to CUDA Programming, OpenACC and SYCL (60 Hours)

CUDA Programming/ OpenCL, (40 Hours)

Introduction to GPGPU, GPU Performance Vs CPU Performance, GPU Computing Application
Domain, nVIDIA’s GPGPU Hardware Model, GPU Computing with CUDA, Thread Hierarchy,
Memory Hierarchy, CUDA constructs, Case-Studies (Algorithms and Parallelization
Approaches): Matrix – Multiplication,
Introduction to OpenCL, Host Program, Kernel Program
optimization & debugging using heterogeneous Programming.
OpenACC & One API (SYCL) (20 Hours)
OpenAcc Introduction, Parallelize and optimize loop, Optimize data locality, OpenACC
Interoperability and SYCL introduction
Introduction to AI and OpenVino (60 Hours)
Introduction to Machine Learning (using Scikit Learn), Supervised Learning, Model Selection
and Boosting, Unsupervised Learning, Neural Networks with Tensor Flow 2.x, intro to Keras,
OpenCV, Open Vino.

8. Aptitude & Effective Communication (90 Hours)

9. Project (100 Hours)

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 Annexure C: Syllabus of NSM C-CAT
Table 1: Indicative syllabus of the different sections of test papers in NSM C-CAT.

TEST PAPER TOPICS DURATION

English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning, Computer
Section A 1 hour
Fundamentals & Concepts of Programming
C Programming, Data Structures, Object Oriented
Section B Programming Concepts using C++, Operating Systems & 1 hour
Networking, Basics of Big Data & Artificial Intelligence

Table 2: Reference books for the various topics in NSM C-CAT

SECTION TOPIC REFERENCE BOOK

English Any High School Grammar Book (e.g. Wren & Martin)
Quantitative Aptitude Fully Solved (R. S. Aggrawal)
Quantitative Aptitude &
Quantitative Aptitude (M Tyara)
Reasoning
A Barron’s New GRE
Computer Fundamentals
Foundations of Computing (Pradeep Sinha & Priti
& Concepts of
Sinha)
Programming
C Programming Language (Kernighan & Ritchie)
C Programming
Let Us C (Yashavant Kanetkar)

Data Structures Data Structures Through C in Depth (S. K. Srivastava)

Operating Systems & Operating System Principles (Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne)

B Networking Data Communication & Networking (Forouzan)
OOP Concepts Test Your C ++ Skills (Yashavant Kanetkar)
Fundamentals of Data Engineering (Joe Reis, Matt
Housley)
Basics of Big Data & AI
Artificial Intelligence for Dummies (John Paul Mueller,
Luca Massaron)

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Annexure D: Important Dates

No. Event Date

a Beginning of Online Registration and Application for NSM C-CAT 11 December 2023

b Closing of Online NSM C-CAT Registration & Application 3 January 2024

c Downloading of NSM C-CAT Admit Cards 9 - 13 January, 2024

NSM C-DAC's Common Admission Test (C-CAT) at the Test 13 January 14 January
d
Centres 2024 2024
e Announcement of NSM C-CAT Ranks 25 January 2024
25 January – 2 February
f Online Selection of Courses (1st Counselling)
2024
g Declaration of First Round of Seat Allocation 5 February 2024
Last Date of Caution deposit (Rs 10,000) for candidates allocated 12 February 2024
h
seats through the first round (till 5pm)
i Declaration of Second Round of Seat Allocation 14 February 2024
Last Date of the Caution deposit (Rs 10,000) for candidates 19 February 2024
j
allocated seats through the second round (till 5pm)

Payment of Caution deposit (Rs 10,000) and Online Selection of 20 - 26 February, 2024
k
Courses (2nd Counselling) (till 5 pm)

Declaration of Third Round of Seat Allocation (based on 2nd

l 27 February 2024
Counselling)
m Last Date of Registration of Students 4 March 2024

n Start of PG Diploma Courses 5 March 2024

o End of PG Diploma Courses 19 August 2024

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Annexure E: Additional Terms & Conditions
(a) Candidate/student agrees that the information provided by them during application/
admission/ course through forms, emails, or other means are correct. Candidate/ student
allows C-DAC to use the information provided by them for its own purposes, to the extent
allowed by applicable laws, and contact them for communication through notification on
its websites, emails, or SMS.
(b) The cities, dates, etc. for C-CAT are indicative/tentative and may change as per evolving
pandemic related orders of the government and local authorities. Candidate agrees that
while their city preferences for C-CAT will be taken into consideration for allotting test
centres, C-DAC may allot any city or centre for operational and practical reasons at its
own discretion.
(c) Candidate/student agrees to provide reasonable additional information including, but not
limited to, identification, fingerprint, audio / video surveillance, etc. for conduction or
proctoring of physical or online examination for admission or course progression.
(d) C-DAC reserves the right to modify or cancel any parts of the Admission Rule-book,
processes and results including, but not limited to, exams, mode of exams, question
papers, announced dates, courses, syllabus, cities, centres, intake capacities, ranks, seat
allocation, candidatures, admissions, etc. as it deems fit, partly or wholly, at any stage
without assigning any reasons thereof.
(e) Application to the courses by candidates and/or admission in any of the courses by
students shall indicate their acceptance of all Terms & Conditions, Conduct Rules, Dos &
Don'ts, etc. as may be prescribed by C-DAC from time to time. C-DAC shall have the right
to impose appropriate disciplinary and other penalties for violation of prescribed terms
and rules, including cancellation of candidature, admission, placements, and/or award of
certificate.
(f) In case a candidate is found to be non-eligible during any stage of the admission process
or course delivery, his/her admission will stand cancelled with immediate effect and
he/she will be subjected to the forfeiture of the caution deposit.
(g) Use of any unfair means, coercion, inducement, violent, indecent, disorderly, threatening,
or offensive behaviour or language by way of gesture, voice, writing, symbols, etc. shall
constitute ground for suspension/expulsion from C-CAT and/or course, or debarment
from joining/attending C-DAC examination(s) and/or course(s) in future. Decision of C-
DAC in this regard shall be final and binding. Such students may be subjected to the
forfeiture of the caution deposit.
(h) All communication from candidates must be made only to the email addresses and phone
numbers given in relevant sections of this Admission Rule-book. Sending emails or
phone calling or messaging directly to officials of C-DAC or ATCs is prohibited.
(i) Depending upon the prevailing city/state-wise pandemic and any other guidelines,
the training centres may plan the course delivery-mode and communicate the same
to the students upon confirmation of admission and thereafter. Decision and
directions of C-DAC in this regard shall be final and binding on all students.

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(j) All decisions of C-DAC with regards to the admission provisions, processes and results shall be final
and binding on all candidates/students.

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Annexure F: Flowchart for PG-Diploma Course
Start

Registration & Application Form filling for NSM C-CAT

(C-DAC’s Common Admission Test)

NSM C-CAT Not Qualified Disqualify for PG-Diploma

Exam Course
Conduction

Qualified

Rejected
Document Disqualify for PG-Diploma
Verification Course
Conduction

Selected

Rs 10,000/- Caution Money Deposit

PG-Diploma Course Execution

Attendance < 75%

Student Not eligible for CCEE & Not
Attendance Check eligible for caution money
refund

Attendance >= 75%

Eligible for CCEE

No
Appeared for
CCEE & Got
Clearance

Yes

Refund of Caution Deposit

End

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