Product: Intel Announces Multi-Core Threading Tools

Intel has announced the availability of three new threading tools that enable software developers to create threaded applications to take full advantage of multi-core processing systems, including Intel Threading Building Blocks 1.0, Intel Thread Checker 3.0 and Intel Thread Profiler 3.0. Intel Threading Building Blocks 1.0 is a C++ runtime library that simplifies introducing threads to an application, making performance gains possible while shielding software developers from the low-level complexity of assigning threads to processor cores. With this tool, developers can avoid having to re-write, re-test and re-tune common parallel data structures and algorithms. Developers can utilize this product to make their programs simpler and more maintainable while also enhancing the speed and scalability of their applications. Intel Threading Building Blocks enables developers to write an application once that automatically recognizes the number of available cores and scales performance appropriately. This reduces the need to re-write application code when new processors with more cores are released. Threading Building Blocks 1.0 provides a single solution for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS on platforms using Intel, Microsoft and GNU compilers. This library can be used in concert with other threading programming interfaces, such as Windows, POSIX and OpenMP threads. Intel Thread Checker 3.0 is a threading analysis tool that allows developers to introduce threading in a way to minimize error potential. With its patented, advanced error protection engine, it provides “thread safety” by identifying the most obscure threading errors in 32-bit and 64-bit applications. Intel Thread Checker is unique in its ability to help developers understand how to optimally use Windows, POSIX or OpenMP threads in their applications. This latest version of Intel Thread Checker now supports 64-bit applications on Intel hardware platforms based on the Intel 64 architecture, enabling developers to use just one thread analyzer for both their 32- and 64-bit applications. In addition to supporting Intel compilers and existing Microsoft compilers on Windows, Intel Thread Checker 3.0 adds integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Intel Thread Profiler 3.0 for Windows provides developers with insight into how their application threads interact. Intel Thread Profiler visualizes threaded application behavior and pinpoints parallel performance issues, such as bottlenecks. It allows developers to measure the number of cores that are effectively utilized by the application and indicates the percentage of the code that is not optimally parallelized for the hardware platform on which the application is running. Intel Thread Profiler 3.0 can also prototype and estimate the performance potential of threading parts of an application, enabling developers to thread the parts of their application that will yield the greatest performance. Intel Threading Building Blocks 1.0, Intel Thread Checker 3.0 and Intel Thread Profiler 3.0 are available today, and more information on pricing is available at the official Intel software products homepage.