Parallel programming truly redefines the programming model for multicore architecture, which has become commonplace. For this reason, parallel programming has been elevated to a core technology in the Microsoft .NET Framework 4. In this version of the .NET Framework, the Task Parallel Library (TPL) and the System.Threading.Tasks namespace contain the parallel programming implementation. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 has also been enhanced and now includes several features to aid in creating and maintaining parallel applications. If you are a Microsoft developer looking to decompose your application into parallel tasks that execute over separate processor cores, then Visual Studio 2010 and the TPL are the tools you need.

Parallel Programming with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Step by Step provides an organized walkthrough of using Visual Studio 2010 to create parallel applications. It discusses the TPL and parallel programming concepts in considerable detail; however, this book is still introductory—it covers the basics of each realm of parallel programming, such as task and data parallelism. Although the book does not provide exhaustive coverage of every parallel programming topic, it does offer essential guidance in using the concepts of parallel programming.

In addition to its coverage of core parallel programming concepts, the book discusses concurrent collections and thread synchronization, and it guides you in maintaining and debugging parallel applications by using Visual Studio. Beyond the explanatory content, most chapters include step-by-step examples and downloadable sample projects that you can explore for yourself.