New book: C++ AMP - Accelerated Massive Parallelism with Microsoft Visual C++

We are pleased to announce the new book C++ AMP: Accelerated Massive Parallelism with Microsoft Visual C++  by Kate Gregory and Ade Miller. C++ AMP lets you capitalize on the fast GPU processors in today’s computers through the C++ AMP code library, bringing massive parallelism to your project. Experienced C++ developers will learn parallel programming fundamentals with C++ AMP through detailed examples, code snippets, and case studies.

The case studies include:

· An “N-body” case study that uses several different implementations of the classic n-body problem, which models particle movement under gravity, intended to show you how to use C++ AMP to get the most out of your GPU hardware in a computational application

· A “Cartoonizer” case study that demonstrates braided parallelism, using both the available cores on the CPU and any available GPU(s). This project processes video into simpler “cartoonized” images, using two different approaches to solve the problem.

· A “Reduction” case study that shows twelve different implementations of the reduce algorithm. The book shows and discusses each implementation’s performance characteristics and the trade-offs associated with each.

You’ll discover how to:

· Gain huge code performance improvement using graphics processing units (GPUs)

· Choose accelerators that enable you to write code for GPUs

· Program code using the Microsoft DirectX platform

· Apply thread tiles, tile barriers, and tile static memory

· Debug C++ AMP code with Microsoft Visual Studio

· Use profiling tools to track the performance of your code

The full table of contents appears below. You can purchase the book here: https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/store/c-plus-plus-amp-9780735664739.

Chapter 1 : Overview and C++ AMP Approach

Why GPGPU? What Is Heterogeneous Computing?

Technologies for CPU Parallelism

The C++ AMP Approach

Summary

Chapter 2 NBody Case Study

Prerequisites for Running the Example

Running the NBody Sample

Structure of the Example

CPU Calculations

Chapter 3 C++ AMP Fundamentals

array<T, N>

accelerator and accelerator_view

index<N>

extent<N>

array_view<T, N>

parallel_for_each

Functions Marked with restrict(amp)

Copying between CPU and GPU

Math Library Functions

Summary

Chapter 4 Tiling

Purpose and Benefit of Tiling

tile_static Memory

tiled_extent

tiled_index<N1, N2, N3>

Modifying a Simple Algorithm into a Tiled One

Effects of Tile Size

Choosing Tile Size

Summary

Chapter 5 Tiled NBody Case Study

How Much Does Tiling Boost Performance for NBody?

Tiling the n-body Algorithm

Using the Concurrency Visualizer

Choosing Tile Size

Summary

Chapter 6 Debugging

First Steps

GPU Debugging Basics

Seeing Threads

Taking More Control

Summary

Chapter 7 Optimization

An Approach to Performance Optimization

Analyzing Performance

Optimizing Memory Access Patterns

Optimizing Computation

Summary

Chapter 8 Performance Case Study—Reduction

The Problem

Case Study Structure

CPU Algorithms

C++ AMP Algorithms

Summary

Chapter 9 Working with Multiple Accelerators

Choosing Accelerators

Using More Than One GPU

Swapping Data among Accelerators

Dynamic Load Balancing

Braided Parallelism

Falling Back to the CPU

Summary

Chapter 10 Cartoonizer Case Study

Prerequisites

Running the Sample

Structure of the Sample

The Pipeline

The Pipeline Cartoonizing Stage

Using Multiple C++ AMP Accelerators

Cartoonizer Performance

Summary

Chapter 11 Graphics Interop

Fundamentals

Using Textures and Short Vectors

HLSL Intrinsic Functions

DirectX Interop

Summary

Chapter 12 Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices

Dealing with Tile Size Mismatches

Initializing Arrays

Function Objects vs. Lambdas

Atomic Operations

Additional C++ AMP Features on Windows 8

Time-Out Detection and Recovery

Double-Precision Support

Debugging on Windows 7

Additional Debugging Functions

Deployment

C++ AMP and Windows 8 Windows Store Apps

Using C++ AMP from Managed Code

Summary

Appendix Other Resources

More from the Authors

Microsoft Online Resources

Download C++ AMP Guides

Code and Support

Training