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).

The roadmap for developers wanting to maximize their applications for multi-core architecture using Visual Studio 2010.

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.

This practical book includes a tutorial of the entire set of Windows and .NET APIs required to write concurrent programs. Because so much of the threading and synchronization features of the platform are Windows-general, the author, Joe Duffy, focuses first on the general behavior and then on the API details of native and managed code. Interspersed among the tutorial are many difficult-to-discover, useful insights, and internal details about how things work.