Get ready for HPC in the mainstream

By the end of 2012, we will have single-socket, x86 devices with 128 cores. The only way to manage systems built with such devices is to exploit the parallel processing technologies developed for the rarefied world of High Performance Computing.

By by Martin Banks, 23 Aug 2007 at 14:55

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Now there will be more than one counter - in fact it could be an indeterminate number depending upon both total and priority demands on available system resources at any point in time. So the long term Microsoft goal is to build a packaged environment in which parallelised applications code can run without any specific dependencies upon the number - or even type - of processor cores being utilised.

Such a packaged environment will, in his view, need to manage legacy applications code as well as adapted, parallelised legacy code which may be possible using such tools as the new C# and Visual Basic enhancements in the LINQ (Language Integrated Query) .NET Framework extensions. It will also need to support a much wider range of programming styles that parallelism brings with it, such as functional and transaction styles, data parallel and task parallel styles, message passing and shared memory styles and implicit and explicit styles.

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