Intel and India's NIIT team on multicore training

Intel has teamed with Indian training company NIIT to develop a global multicore processor technology training curriculum.

NIIT is the only training company Intel is currently partnering with on a global basis, said Narendra Bhandari, director for Asia Pacific of Intel's Developer Relations Division, in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Intel shared content and technology with NIIT, which in turn converted it into training material and courseware that could be used in a classroom environment, he added.

Intel's global partnership with NIIT builds on an agreement in 2005 between the two companies to introduce specialized training programs for India's software developers around Intel's architectures and platforms, including on its multicore processor platforms. Since then, more than 20,000 software developers have been trained on Intel technology, Bhandari said.

The multicore training curriculum offers basic and advanced training, from an initial overview of multicore to a working experience of parallel programming, including the intricacies of multithreaded programming and performance optimization, NIIT said.

The curriculum has been designed to provide developers with key diagnostic skills and specialized threading tools, which will allow rapid deployment of correct and efficient parallel applications, according to NIIT.

The multicore training program will be delivered by NIIT and its subsidiary, Element K, in Rochester, New York, in more than 32 countries, including the U.S. and U.K. NIIT is also partnering with Intel Software Training Providers in Australia, Germany, South Korea, and the U.K., as well as other training partners in Turkey and Russia.

Intel is planning to increase the number of country-specific and regional training partners who can offer course training on multicore software development, Bhandari said.

As Intel promotes multicore processors, the demand for training on skills to design and develop software that harness the full potential of these processors is huge, according to Bhandari. Intel will be recommending NIIT's training program to its network of developers as well as partners, he added.

NIIT tied up in March with EMC to train storage professionals in 32 countries, including India. The alliance, the first global training tie-up by EMC, aims at bridging a shortage of storage and information management professionals worldwide.