TechHelpBasics » The Art of Programming http://www.techhelpbasics.com An exploration of technology, programming, cartooning, old time radio, and whatever else crosses my radar Tue, 13 May 2008 00:31:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 The Zen of Dual-Core Programming http://www.techhelpbasics.com/the-zen-of-dual-core-programming/ http://www.techhelpbasics.com/the-zen-of-dual-core-programming/#comments Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:00:50 +0000 Mark http://www.techhelpbasics.com/blog/2007/06/06/the-zen-of-dual-core-programming/ concurrency and its effects on popular programming languages, and Michael Covington mentioned concurrent programming a week and a half later. You may have seen television commercials advertising computers with dual-core CPU's. The problem from a programmer's standpoint is that a computer with two CPU's is not automatically twice as fast as a computer with a single CPU.]]> Jeff Duntemann had an interesting post on concurrency and its effects on popular programming languages, and Michael Covington mentioned concurrent programming a week and a half later. You may have seen television commercials advertising computers with dual-core CPU’s. The problem from a programmer’s standpoint is that a computer with two CPU’s is not automatically twice as fast as a computer with a single CPU. Think of it in terms of any job you do by yourself on a regular basis. Would bringing in a second person make the job go faster? If the job is linear (starting at one point and progressing in a straight line to the finish), then no, bringing in a second person will not speed up the job because most of the time the second person will be standing around watching you work. But if the job is made up of a lot of little jobs that can be performed independently, then bringing in a second person will speed things up quite a bit; the two of you can divvy up the workload and get things done in half the time.

Despite the multitasking capabilities of Windows, most programs are still written in a linear fashion, and most programmers are still linear thinkers. It is going to take a massive change in technique and a complete abandonment of preconceived notions to take full advantage of dual-core processors, and structuring programs to divide tasks among multiple CPU’s is going to become an art form. I’m not sure which language programmers will be favoring by then, and I agree with Jeff that it may not be C. But then again, why should it be? C has been dominant for just a small percentage of total computer history, and concurrency may be just the stimulus that some less popular language needs to surge to the front.

Tags: Dual Core, Concurrent Programming

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