Intel Creates Open Source Project for Its Popular Multi-Core Development Software

Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBB), a popular software C++ template library that simplifies the development of software applications running in parallel (key to any multicore computer), is now available as an open source project under the GNU General Public License version two (GPLv2) with the runtime exception. Intel TBB, as both an open source and fully supported commercial offering, makes parallelism more accessible for programmers and enables increased application performance on multi-core processors.

* Intel TBB is a C++ template library that adds parallel programming for C++ programmers. It uses generic programming to be efficient, but it has programmers express tasks instead of threads. This allows scalable programs at a fraction of the developer effort compared to C++ with threading packages.
* Intel TBB provides an abstraction for parallelism that avoids the low level programming inherent in the direct use of threading packages such as p-threads or Windows threads.
* Intel TBB extends C++ for parallelism in an easy to use and efficient manner. It is designed to work with any C++ compiler thus simplifying development on applications for multi-core systems.
* Intel TBB facilitates scalable performance in a way that works across a variety of machines for today, and readies programs for tomorrow. It detects the number of cores on the hardware platform and makes the necessary adjustments as more cores are added to allow software to adapt. Thus, more effectively taking advantage of multi-core hardware.
* Intel TBB is a proven solution and currently is being used on a wide variety of C++ applications, particularly ones where the notion of getting scalable performance is important. This covers multiple application segments such as digital content creation, animation, financial services, electronic design and automation and design simulation.
* Intel continues to support the commercial version of Intel Threading Building Blocks 2.0, which is available for $299. This product includes one year of technical support, upgrades and new releases. The commercial version of Intel TBB is also included with the recently launched Intel® C++ Compiler Professional Editions 10.0.

More information on Threading Building Blocks is available at www.threadingbuildingblocks.org.

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