Your CPU meter shows a problem. One core is running at 100 percent, but all the other cores are idle. Your application is CPU-bound, but you are using only a fraction of the computing power of your multicore system. Is there a way to get better performance? The answer, in a nutshell, is parallel programming. Where you once would have written the kind of sequential code that is familiar to all programmers, you now find that this no longer meets your performance goals. To use your system’s CPU resources efficiently, you need to split your application into pieces that can run at the same time. Of course, this is easier said than done. Parallel programming has a reputation for being the domain of experts and a minefield of subtle, hard-to-reproduce software defects. Everyone seems to have a favorite story about a parallel program that did not behave as expected because of a mysterious bug. These stories should inspire a healthy respect for the difficulty of the problems you will face in writing your own parallel programs. Fortunately, help has arrived. The Parallel Patterns Library (PPL) and the Asynchronous Agents Library introduce a new programming model for parallelism that significantly simplifies the job. Behind the scenes are sophisticated algorithms that dynamically distribute computations on multicore architectures. In addition, Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 developmentsystem includes debugging and analysis tools to support the new parallel programming model. Proven design patterns are another source of help. This guide introduces you to the most important and frequently used patterns of parallel programming and provides executable code samples for them, using PPL. When thinking about where to begin, a good place to start is to review the patterns in this book. See if your problem has any attributes that match the six patterns presented in the following chapters. If it does, delve more deeply into the relevant pattern or patterns and study the sample code.

Capitalize on the faster GPU processors in today’s computers with the C++ AMP code library—and bring massive parallelism to your project. With this practical book, experienced C++ developers will learn parallel programming fundamentals with C++ AMP through detailed examples, code snippets, and case studies. Learn the advantages of parallelism and get best practices for harnessing this technology in your applications. Discover how to: Gain greater code performance using graphics processing units (GPUs) Choose accelerators that enable you to write code for GPUs Apply thread tiles, tile barriers, and tile static memory Debug C++ AMP code with Microsoft Visual Studio Use profiling tools to track the performance of your code

The CPU meter shows the problem. One core is running at 100 percent, but all the other cores are idle. Your application is CPU-bound, but you are using only a fraction of the computing power of your multicore system. What next? The answer, in a nutshell, is parallel programming. Where you once would have written the kind of sequential code that is familiar to all programmers, you now find that this no longer meets your performance goals. To use your system's CPU resources efficiently, you need to split your application into pieces that can run at the same time. This is easier said than done. Parallel programming has a reputation for being the domain of experts and a minefield of subtle, hard-to-reproduce software defects. Everyone seems to have a favorite story about a parallel program that did not behave as expected because of a mysterious bug. These stories should inspire a healthy respect for the difficulty of the problems you face in writing your own parallel programs. Fortunately, help has arrived. Microsoft Visual Studio(R) 2010 introduces a new programming model for parallelism that significantly simplifies the job. Behind the scenes are supporting libraries with sophisticated algorithms that dynamically distribute computations on multicore architectures. Proven design patterns are another source of help. A Guide to Parallel Programming introduces you to the most important and frequently used patterns of parallel programming and gives executable code samples for them, using the Task Parallel Library (TPL) and Parallel LINQ (PLINQ).

Expert guidance for those programming today’s dual-core processors PCs As PC processors explode from one or two to now eight processors, there is an urgent need for programmers to master concurrent programming. This book dives deep into the latest technologies available to programmers for creating professional parallel applications using C#, .NET 4, and Visual Studio 2010. The book covers task-based programming, coordination data structures, PLINQ, thread pools, asynchronous programming model, and more. It also teaches other parallel programming techniques, such as SIMD and vectorization. Teaches programmers professional-level, task-based, parallel programming with C#, .NET 4, and Visual Studio 2010 Covers concurrent collections, coordinated data structures, PLINQ, thread pools, asynchronous programming model, Visual Studio 2010 debugging, and parallel testing and tuning Explores vectorization, SIMD instructions, and additional parallel libraries Master the tools and technology you need to develop thread-safe concurrent applications for multi-core systems, with Professional Parallel Programming with C#.

This open access book is a modern guide for all C++ programmers to learn Threading Building Blocks (TBB). Written by TBB and parallel programming experts, this book reflects their collective decades of experience in developing and teaching parallel programming with TBB, offering their insights in an approachable manner. Throughout the book the authors present numerous examples and best practices to help you become an effective TBB programmer and leverage the power of parallel systems. Pro TBB starts with the basics, explaining parallel algorithms and C++'s built-in standard template library for parallelism. You'll learn the key concepts of managing memory, working with data structures and how to handle typical issues with synchronization. Later chapters apply these ideas to complex systems to explain performance tradeoffs, mapping common parallel patterns, controlling threads and overhead, and extending TBB to program heterogeneous systems or system-on-chips. What You'll Learn Use Threading Building Blocks to produce code that is portable, simple, scalable, and more understandableReview best practices for parallelizing computationally intensive tasks in your applications Integrate TBB with other threading packages Create scalable, high performance data-parallel programs Work with generic programming to write efficient algorithms Who This Book Is For C++ programmers learning to run applications on multicore systems, as well as C or C++ programmers without much experience with templates. No previous experience with parallel programming or multicore processors is required.

Your hands-on guide to Visual C++/CLI fundamentals Expand your expertise—and teach yourself the fundamentals of the Microsoft Visual C++/CLI language. If you have previous programming experience but are new to Visual C++, this tutorial delivers the step-by-step guidance and coding exercises you need to master core topics and techniques. Discover how to: Write and debug object-oriented C++ programs in Visual Studio 2012 Utilize the various features of the C++/CLI language Make use of the Microsoft .NET Framework Class Library Create a simple Windows Store app Use .NET features such as properties, delegates and events Access data from disparate sources using ADO.NET Create and consume web services using Windows Communication Foundation Work effectively with legacy code and COM

Foreword by Bjarne Stroustrup Software is generally acknowledged to be the single greatest obstacle preventing mainstream adoption of massively-parallel computing. While sequential applications are routinely ported to platforms ranging from PCs to mainframes, most parallel programs only ever run on one type of machine. One reason for this is that most parallel programming systems have failed to insulate their users from the architectures of the machines on which they have run. Those that have been platform-independent have usually also had poor performance. Many researchers now believe that object-oriented languages may offer a solution. By hiding the architecture-specific constructs required for high performance inside platform-independent abstractions, parallel object-oriented programming systems may be able to combine the speed of massively-parallel computing with the comfort of sequential programming. Parallel Programming Using C++ describes fifteen parallel programming systems based on C++, the most popular object-oriented language of today. These systems cover the whole spectrum of parallel programming paradigms, from data parallelism through dataflow and distributed shared memory to message-passing control parallelism. For the parallel programming community, a common parallel application is discussed in each chapter, as part of the description of the system itself. By comparing the implementations of the polygon overlay problem in each system, the reader can get a better sense of their expressiveness and functionality for a common problem. For the systems community, the chapters contain a discussion of the implementation of the various compilers and runtime systems. In addition to discussing the performance of polygon overlay, several of the contributors also discuss the performance of other, more substantial, applications. For the research community, the contributors discuss the motivations for and philosophy of their systems. As well, many of the chapters include critiques that complete the research arc by pointing out possible future research directions. Finally, for the object-oriented community, there are many examples of how encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism can be used to control the complexity of developing, debugging, and tuning parallel software.