Best Practices for Developing and Optimizing Threaded Applications, Part 1.5

Abstract

Microprocessor design is experiencing a shift away from a predominant focus on pure performance to a balanced approach that optimizes for power as well as performance. Multicore processors are capable of greater performance with optimal power consumption by concurrently sharing work and executing tasks on independent execution cores. One technique to fully utilize multicore processors is to thread the application to enable it to run on multiple processor cores. While threading can be a challenge, new software development tools help simplify the process by identifying thread correctness issues and performance opportunities. We present a methodology that has been used to successfully thread many applications and discuss tools that can assist in developing multithreaded applications.

by

Shwetha Doss and

John O’Neill, Ph.D.,

Software and Services

Group, Intel Corporation