Parallel Computing Focused MSDN Portal

As we all know, processors are adding more and more cores on a single chip.  The laptop I am writing this blog post on is a dual-core x64 machine running x64 Vista.  This laptop cost the same as my Toshiba 9000 from just a few years ago.  As another example, I purchased a quad-core CPU that came with a "free" motherboard for around $280 in December at the local Fry's so multi-core is definitely not high-end any more.

This presents interesting challenges to developers who have not spent a lot of time writing multi-threaded programs.  I spent six years as a Premier Support Developer Consultant and have witnessed and assisted customers struggling with multi-threaded development, especially with C++, which is a raw development environment to begin with when compared to a managed development environment.  Even if you have written multi-threaded programs, strange behavior can occur when the multi-threaded program runs on multiple processors.

Microsoft is focused on making it easier for developers to take advantage of parallel computing.  The Microsoft’s Parallel Computing Developer Center has lots of articles and links to related blogs on the topic.  There is also a download available called the Microsoft Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework 3.5 June 2008 Community Technology Preview

if you haven't forayed into parallel computing yet, or if you already have and are looking for more information or to simplify development, I recommend checking out the Parallel Computing Developer Center.