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Faster Chips Are Leaving Programmers in Their Dust

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the or-maybe-they've-already-wrapped-around-to-zero dept.

mlimber writes "The New York Times is running a story about multicore computing and the efforts of Microsoft et al. to try to switch to the new paradigm: "The challenges [of parallel programming] have not dented the enthusiasm for the potential of the new parallel chips at Microsoft, where executives are betting that the arrival of manycore chips — processors with more than eight cores, possible as soon as 2010 — will transform the world of personal computing.... Engineers and computer scientists acknowledge that despite advances in recent decades, the computer industry is still lagging in its ability to write parallel programs." It mirrors what C++ guru and now Microsoft architect Herb Sutter has been saying in articles such as his "The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software." Sutter is part of the C++ standards committee that is working hard to make multithreading standard in C++."

12 of 573 comments (clear)

  1. 2005 Called by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....it wants it's article back.

    Seriously - any developer writing modern desktop or server applications that doesn't know how to do multi-threaded programming effectively deserves to be on EI anyway. It is not that difficult.

    1. Re:2005 Called by ZeroFactorial · · Score: 5, Funny
      This sounds to me like a great example of passing the buck.

      EE Guy #1: We can't seem to build faster chips.
      EE Guy #2: No problem. We'll just put tons of processor cores in instead.
      EE Guy #1: But people have spent the past 30 years creating algorithms for single core machines. Almost none of the programmers have any experience writing multi-core algorithms!
      EE Guy #2: Exactly! We'll be able to blame the programmers for being lazy and not wanting to learn new complicated algorithms that require an additional 4 years of university.
      EE Guy #1: Brilliant! We should come up with a catchy headline like "The Free Lunch is Over" or something like that.
      EE Guy #2: Yeah, and we could get Slashdot to post a link to the article. Slashdot users are sure to sympathize with our devious plans...
    2. Re:2005 Called by EatHam · · Score: 5, Funny

      pretty common to leave out the O() in casual conversation
      I would say that it is *extremely* common for casual conversation to not have anything whatsoever to do with O().
    3. Re:2005 Called by Pollardito · · Score: 2, Funny

      actually they divided the buck into 10 dimes and then passed them all in parallel.

      seriously though, it was only a few years ago that people were scoffing at the usefulness of dual processor desktop machines and arguing the value of being able to run multi-threaded apps and multiple apps faster at the expense of poorer performance on the vast majority of apps and games which people were running in isolation. it doesn't seem like applications or operating systems have seen a major overhaul since that time (just incremental gains), but the enthusiasm with which they're piling on more and more cores has drowned out all the questions people had. i think this has more to do with chip marketers needing to be able to trumpet something with great excitement than actual newfound utility of multiprocessing

  2. M$ programmers should be already capable by scafuz · · Score: 5, Funny

    just start a multithread process: 1 core for the program itself, the remaining 7 for the bugs...

  3. hhooppee tthheeyy ffiixx tthhiiss ssoooonn by Chordonblue · · Score: 5, Funny

    II hhaavvee aann XX22 pprrocceessssoor? Ii ccaann ggooeess TTWWIICCEE aass ffaasstt nnooww?

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
    1. Re:hhooppee tthheeyy ffiixx tthhiiss ssoooonn by ByOhTek · · Score: 4, Funny

      my eyes, they bleed.

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
  4. Thank god by Fizzl · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thank god that Java, C# and other piles of shit I hate do this quite intuitively and easily.
    Guess I had it coming.
    /me closes his eyes and embraces C++ for the last time before the inevitable doom

    --
    Bot Assisted Blogging
  5. YOUR eyes?! by Chordonblue · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just be glad I didn't upgrade to the X4 yet! :)

    --
    "...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
  6. Re:Evolution that halted at 4 ghz.... by Skrynkelberg · · Score: 5, Funny

    You may want to switch of the rapid fire-mode for your "."-key.

  7. Microsofts view on cores by bjb_admin · · Score: 4, Funny

    No need for parallel computing all cores are already used.

    Core one: For the OS
    Core two: Anti-virus
    Core three: Anti-Spyware / Windows Defender
    Core four: Firewall
    Core five: Windows update notifications and installations
    Core six: Windows Genuine advantage checks
    Core seven: Eye Candy (Vista) with XP you get a bonus CPU
    Core eight: What ever the user wants to run, except when you get a virus, then
    you have to share it with the SPAM bot.

    Guess we will be waiting for 16 core CPU's.

    Oh and don't start me on memory requirements :-)

  8. Re:Me too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Right, because it's not like most people's computers are running more than one program at a time anyways. I mean, what would you do, interleave the decks or something?