Parallel Scars

15 Apr Parallel Scars

If you have read any of my articles and columns over the past several years, you will notice that I get on my “parallel programming soapbox” and browbeat anyone who will listen. My basic message is as follows. “Due to multi-core, everyone (who writes code) will eventually need to do some parallel programming. There will be few exceptions. Parallel computing is hard and there is no silver bullet to make it easy.”

The only bright spot is that HPC people have been dealing with this issue for a while. Although, after years of working, there is no easy solution. When I started my ranting, I felt like a lone crazy man on the street corner. Not any more. There was a recent article in the Economist called Parallel Bars. The article is one of the best summaries I have read to date. It covers most of the issues and even mentions functional languages.

If you have a few minutes, I recommend reading the Economist article. Alternatively, you can search for my postings and read why I can’t sleep at night. The parallel programming challenge, once exclusively an HPC issue, is now facing every programmer in the industry. And I mean everyone.