Multi-Core Learning Guide: Beginners

Welcome Browse Beginner Learning Content The Big Picture - It's a Parallel Universe

Threading Nuts and Bolts Tactics for Success Sample Applications Threading for Game Developers

Multi-Core's here! Find links below to papers, training opportunities, information on threading tools, and multithreaded programming case studies. If you still have questions like whether to use a mutex or a semaphore, consult the Forums and Blogs in our Multi-Core Developers Community - they're a great source for answers, feedback, or just a place to sound-off!


Get started on the right track. Check this section for essential courseware, documentation, and video training.

The Big Picture - It's a Parallel Universe

• Inside Intel® Core™ Architecture and Smart Memory Access by Jack Doweck [PDF 182KB]
• Inside Intel® Core™ Architecture Setting New Standards for Energy-Efficient Performance by Ofri Wechsler [PDF 713KB]
• Transitioning Software to Future Generations of Multi-Core
• Technical Brief - Transitioning Software to Future Generations of Multi-Core
• Tera-scale Computing - A Parallel Path to the Future
• Scaling Software Architectures for the Future of Multi-Core Computing
• Factors Impacting Scalability of Digital Health Applications on Parallel Hardware
• Writing Parallel Programs: A Multi-Language Tutorial Introduction
• A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software*
• Intel Core: A Next-Generation Micro architecture*
• Multithreaded Technology and Multi-Core Processors
• Software PBX Performance on Intel® Multi-Core Platforms – a study of Asterisk* White Paper

Threading Nuts and Bolts

• 8 Simple Rules for Designing Threaded Applications
• Intel® Threading Tools and OpenMP*
• Multithreaded Programming Quickstart*
• Nuts and Bolts of Multithreaded Programming
• Getting Started with OpenMP*
• POSIX Threads Programming*
• Multithreaded Technology and Multi-Core Processors
• Choosing between OpenMP* and Explicit Threading Methods
• More Work-Sharing with OpenMP
• Advanced OpenMP* Programming
• Performance Obstacles for Threading: How do they affect OpenMP code?
• The Software Optimization Cookbook [PDF 211KB]
• Software Tools & Technologies for a Multi-Core Architecture for Architects and Developers*
• Intel® Threading Building Blocks, OpenMP, or native threads
• Software Techniques for Shared-Cache Multi-Core Systems 

Tactics for Success

• Developing Multithreaded Applications: A Platform Consistent Approach [PDF 918KB]
• Threading in .NET* - Best Practices
• The Process of Threading: Multithreading a Sequential Application for a Multi-core World*
• Multi-Threading in a Java* Environment
• Multi-Threading in the .NET* Environment
• Tuning Threads for Performance: Improving Software Performance with the Intel® Thread Profiler
• Intel® Threading Building Blocks: Scalable Programming for Multi-core
• Creating Impressive 3D Productions at High Speed [PDF 304KB]

Sample Applications

• Download Manager Sample Application*
• FTP Client Sample Application*
• Desktop Search Sample Application*
• XNA Game Sample Application*

Threading for Game Developers

• Threading Basics for Games
• Open Source Game Development
• Threading 3D Game Engine Basics*
• Architecture of a Real-Time Ray-Tracer - Part 1
• Architecture of a Real-Time Ray-Tracer - Part 2