Blogs » Site News & Announcements

Dualbooting Windows 7 and Windows 8

Rami Radi (Intel) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:08:52 +0000

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO image became public a few days ago, which is available here, so I am sure a lot of people are interested in trying it out on their development systems without replacing their current Windows 7 installation.

If you've ever dual booted a system before, the procedure for doing it for Windows 8 is not all that different. In summary, all you need to do is create a new partition for Windows 8, install it on that partition, and then edit your new boot menu if you want to keep Windows 7 as the default OS.

Step One: Download and burn the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

• Assuming that you downloaded the Consumer preview ISO image from the link above, you can use the “ Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to either burn the ISO image to a DVD disc or a USB drive. The tool is free, and very small, and installation instructions are available in the site itself and are very simple. Of course if you prefer to use other burning software like ImgBurn, you can do that too.

Step Two: Create a New Partition

• Before you start, make sure to make a backup of your data and files. We will be creating new partitions and installing a new OS, so anything could go wrong, and you don't want to lose your everything. For paranoid people like me, I like taking "bare metal" backups of my systems with a wonderful open source and free tool called Redo Backup. A bare metal backup takes a complete image of your hard drive, with all of its partitions. That way, I am able to restore my entire system the way it was exactly if needed. Going into more details about backups however is another topic.

• When you're ready, from within Windows 7, we will create some space for Windows 8 by using Windows' Disk Management. Click on the Start Menu and right click on "Computer", then click "Manage", and in the window that appears, click on "Disk Management" in the left sidebar.

• Find your system hard disk in the graphical list that appears in the bottom pane. Right-click on it and then click "Shrink Volume". 20 GBs is a reasonable size that is not too small and not too big for the new Windows 8 partition, so shrink it down so you have at least 20GB of space left on the end of the drive, and click OK. Of course if you think you need more than 20 GB (if you are going to do intensive development and/or testing), or less than 20GB (if you don’t have enough space on your Windows 7 partition), then please feel free to choose a different size.

• Then, click on the "Unallocated" block of that drive that appears and click "New Simple Volume". Click Next on the next few windows until you reach the "Format Partition" window. Here, give it a volume label you'll recognize (like "Windows 8") and click Next. It should format the drive for you. Now you're all set to install Windows 8.

Step Three: Install Windows 8

• Now reboot your system, and go into your BIOS settings (for most systems, you need to press F2 or DEL). Now make sure your computer is set to boot from CD or USB as a first priority (depending on what medium you have decided to use earlier). This may be different from system to system though. Now reboot.

• Now you should boot into the Windows 8 installer. It looks very similar to the Windows 7 installer, so it should be familiar. Pick your language and hit "Install Now”.

• Enter the Product Key available on the Windows 8 Consumer Preview download page.

• Now choose "Custom" when asked what type of install you'd like to perform. Then find the new partition you created on the list of drives shown. Make sure it's the right one, because remember, you are about to write over whatever is on it.

• Hit "Next" and let the installer do its thing. When you're done, your computer should reboot into Windows 8. It'll probably reboot one more time after it does, then you will see the Windows 8 Start screen.

Step Four: Make Windows 7 the Default OS Again

• You'll notice when you first boot up into Windows 8 the new graphical boot menu that will let you choose between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Windows 8 will be the default, meaning if you don't manually choose Windows 7 from the menu, your computer will boot into Windows 8 after 3 seconds, unless you interrupt it. If this is not something you want, follow the steps below to make Windows 7 the default OS again.

• On the boot menu, click on the button at the bottom that says "Change Defaults or Choose Other Options", and hit "Choose the Default Operating System". From there, you can pick Windows 7 from the menu. From now on, your computer will boot into Windows 7 by default

Thats it. Enjoy using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, on your dualboot system.

Rami

The way to becoming an Intel Black Belt Software Developer

Andrey Karpov — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:44:18 +0000

The Intel company holds a lot of specialist training programs, carries out programming contests, invites people to meetings and free conferences. Unfortunately, we often miss such events, and one gets upset on knowing that he/she did not participate in an already finished event. By the way, participating in Intel contests often ends with a participant being employed by Intel. I have witnessed it a couple of times. A person comes to a meeting to get his/her prize, the next year you see him wearing the "Intel worker" badge himself/herself. So, mind this. :)

However, you don't necessarily need to fight for the first prize in competitions to attract Intel's attention; there are other interesting and useful ways too. For example, you can become a participant of the Intel Software Network (ISN) community and automatically become a participant in the "Black Belt Software Developer" contest. It is this program that I wanted to tell you about.

Intel Software Network is a community of software developers. It includes blogs and articles by the community members or Intel company's employees, forums, announcements of new events, contests and so on. What is important and interesting is that you can ask questions directly of Intel workers in forums or in article comments. Or you may give answers yourself, publish interesting content, etc., i.e. be an active and useful community member. It is this what Intel takes into account when selecting candidates to nominate for the "Intel Black Belt Software Developer" award.

This is how the Intel site defines a person deserving to bear this title:

This is a title for community members who demonstrate outstanding expertise on Intel technologies and enrich our communities by regularly sharing their knowledge and expertise, providing help & support in the discussion forums, submitting content such as articles and participating in the communities. It is recognition of the community leadership and contribution by these members.

While you are on your way to perfection, you will be given belts of different colors. To learn more about this program, its conditions and advantages see the following posts:

Intel® Black Belt Software Developer;

Intel Brown Belt Software Developer and Intel Green Belt Software Developer - FAQs;

Intel® Black Belt Software Developers - FAQs;

Intel® Black Belt Software Developer Terms and Conditions.

And what myself is concerned, I'm writing this post from joy and gratitude. The reason is that I have been given the Intel Black Belt Software Developer title. I was very pleased to receive congratulations at the ISN-meeting and get a wonderful high-performance laptop as a prize.

The prize is a Sony VAIO Intel Core i7-based laptop with 4 cores, 6 Gbytes of memory, a Blu-ray driver and other bonuses. There are other presents besides this one and even more advantages provided by the title. For example, I've become a user of the Intel Parallel Studio XE 2011 software.

What do you need to get appreciated? Nothing extraordinary. You should be an active community member, write articles and keep in touch with people. I, for instance, even did not think about and reckon for the Black Belt title. To be honest, I was more concerned with the discussions of PVS-Studio. That's why it was very unexpectedly and pleasant to get the award for interesting articles and contribution into the ISN community's life.

Thanks to everyone. I will try to continue pleasing my readers with interesting posts and unicorns.

As fall Idaho twins, so falls Twin Falls, ID

Clay Breshears (Intel) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:24:06 +0000

If you've read Kathy's blog and Show Notes for Parallel Programming Talk #130, then you know the sad news. This was the last show we'll be doing. Kathy and I are moving on to different duties within Intel. Ironically, over the last three months I've had quite a few people tell me that they had just found the show and were enjoying the episodes that they had seen. Luckily for them, there will always be this and the previous 129 episodes available for online viewing.

I want to thank Kathy Farrel for all her hard work in organizing and taking the lead on the last 40 shows. She had some fresh ideas during our collaboration and I enjoyed working with her. Kathy was taking on the role of Parallel Programming Community Manager and it seemed like she was asking me at least one question every day about the subject.  She started out a bit camera shy and tongue-tied. But she made steady improvement, started to explore parallel programming topics on her own, and soon got comfortable with the hosting duties. I am impressed with her drive and tenacity. She will do more great things in her new role.

Aaron Tersteeg deserves a big "Thank You" for developing Parallel Programming Talk back in 2008, first on blogtalkradio and then as an Intel Software Network web video show. When he first approached me about participating, he described it as "Car Talk" but focused around parallel programming topics. We tried to keep things both informal and informative. I was relegated to Aaron's monitor when we started the video shows (as he is in Oregon and I am in Illinois), which led to some light-hearted moments, some accidents, and some experimentation as we played with this restriction.

(My favorite anecdote from the early video days was when Aaron ran into a fan of the show at a Portland Trailblazers game. The fan knew he looked familiar and then asked if he was Clay Breshears.)

The production crew will always have my undying respect and appreciation. Jerry Makare and Josh Bancroft ushered the video era into existence and have always driven the technology and production values to deliver a higher quality product. They were always up for a challenge and conquered many of them during the show's run. I also appreciate all the work that the video production interns--Chris Davis and Anthony Lopez--did for the show. They worked tirelessly behind the scenes moving, setting up, and tearing down equipment, they did some of the editing chores, and they were always great fun during those rare times I was in town for a live shoot.

And finally, I want to thank the fans and casual viewers of the show. Thank you for all your support, questions, and comments. Without you we would have shut down soon after we started. During my tenure as co-host of Parallel Programming Talk, I got to meet some of the superstars of the field, got to hear more about cool parallel languages and approaches to parallel programming, and got to see some cool tools that are useful in making parallel programming, debugging and tuning much easier. I hope that you enjoyed hearing from the experts and finding out about new technology at least half as much as I did.

Keep writing parallel code and be good to each other.

Interview with Stewart McSherry of Xfrog and More

Audri Phillips — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:44:06 +0000

I have been using a program called Xfrog for more reasons than it has a great name. Many years ago I was told about it by several people, and one of them was Saty Raghavachary, a programmer and educator at DreamWorks Animation. I only regret it has taken me so many years to start using the program. On the company website this program is described as a “procedural organic 3D modeler.” It is much more. All of the creations you make in the program can also be animated. Recently people have started 3D printing using Xfrog models. If you go to the web site, xfrog.com there is an amazing collection of images and animations that have been created using the program.

Xfrog has been used in everything from feature films (recently, "Avatar") to multimedia projects. A stand alone program, it also has a plug in for a number of 3D packages. It can also be used in conjuncture with Terragen, a landscaping software that the company owns. I have been using it to create animations involving birds' nests and strange creatures for an immersive dome project I am working on called “Migrations.” I was pleased to find that not only could things be generated right out of the box, but the tools were also there to create very individual, original and complex animated forms. The interface is such that expressions can be used and they also have some excellent tutorials online.

Stewart McSherry is a CG artist and the project manager/business director of Xfrog. In his words, he "studied computer science, fine art, printmaking, and experimental film in the bayous of southwestern Louisiana ... gradually fused it all together and made abstract large-scale computer artworks and a few films here and there."

I am a board member of Iota, a non-profit organization dedicated to experimental and abstract film work, both past and present. It's a great organization, I invite you to peruse the website. Stewart McSherry recently became a board member and when I heard he was involved with Xfrog, this program I loved using, I asked him if he would speak about it. Below is the interview I conducted with Stewart McSherry. I talked with Stewart at his home in Malibu. A friend who had never seen Malibu came with me, and kept asking me where Malibu was. I had to explain there is no real “there there” in Malibu, just a strip of homes, a few restaurants and bars sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Pacific Coast Highway. As we sat on his balcony and were almost blown away by the brisk ocean wind Stewart told me that the city council had never allowed a Malibu unified sewage system to be created so that they could keep Malibu from being overdeveloped. It worked, wonderfully well. (Note, in all fairness Malibu does have some hills you can live on, and a beautiful state park!)

Interview with Stewart McSherry

1. Tell me a little about your background as it pertains to Xfrog?

Well I was a computer artist, fairly successful for a number of years, and I stumbled across a "shareware" called Xfrog for Silicon Graphics machines, and I began to play with it and realized it was extremely powerful and unique tool for 3D organic procedural modeling. It was a huge leap for me - I was using tools that basically were able to draw polygonal shapes and extrude them in 3D, I went from that paradigm to this tool that was consisting of Nature - programs that could branch, spiral, create Natural forms - so i suddenly realized this program Xfrog was really special in the history of 3D modeling.

2. What inspired you to start Xfrog? What aspect of the company is the most fun for you?

So I saw the software, played with it, then met the author, and on the day I met him, after he showed me his new version, which was again a huge leap forward from the one that I was already bowled over by, on that day, I dropped my artist hat and put on a business hat and have never looked back since. I went from artist to businessman instantly and we ported the software to PC and began selling it right after that, and soon every major visual effects studio was buying it, and lots of hobbyists and small production companies bought it after they saw what studios were doing with it. The aspect of the company that is the most interesting for me is the challenge of competing with other companies who are doing plants, grasses, flowers, trees, etc, as we hired very early on professional botanists and taught them how to use Xfrog and built really complex trees and other plants, and so I enjoy basically the fun of competition and strategy in keeping us the hottest company in the organic modeling (plants) arena. We have been doing okay for the past 9 years and continue to grow every year.

3. What are the challenges, programming and otherwise you or your partner have faced with Xfrog?

It is a good challenge to keep current with our software and our plant models. Everything must constantly improve. I never really considered that we would have to improve the plant models. I thought, we could build, for example an adult English Oak with very high complexity, and that would be it. but the reality is that the technology advances very rapidly and what no one could actually use inside their software two years ago, is easy to work with today. Now we are again pushing the limits with trees some of which nowadays have millions and millions of polygons. Which is still nowhere near actual reality, mind you, but I do like seeing the hardware continue to improve because it gives us the opportunity to crank up the precision in our procedure and yesterday's tree of 100,000 polys becomes today's effort of 10 million. We really look forward to our first billion polygon tree someday. or a forest in which we don't have to be concerned with hardware or software limits. "Avatar" in particular, was hard to find a balance between complexity and the limitations of the render farm. Because the trees were needing to be IMAX quality yet not completely crashing the network of computers rendering the film. Avatar is still our most important film work though we look forward to the release of new work in "The Hobbit" and we very recently enjoyed "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" which has the very nice shots of the Northern California Redwood forest created using XfrogPlants.

4. Any relationship to how hair and fur are programmed?

Hair and fur are created using procedural algorithms and we do the same, only our focus has been to try and mimic some of the building blocks of Nature, especially we are proud of our complex approaches at "branching" algorithms.

5. What previous work by others did you or your partner gain helpful insight from that you were able to use in Xfrog?

There is programming work by William Latham that directly influenced our horn component and work by Karl Sims influenced things too.

6. What are the biggest business challenges?

Everyday someone tries to write a better approach to plant modeling. even ourselves. we are experimenting with Lidar backscatter and nobes, we are experimenting with fluid dynamics as branching simulator, etc. but the biggest business challenge is actually coming out of eastern europe, as there are a lot of hungry technology-enriched folks who can model: plants, cars, furniture, and for very low rates. So I don't really have a good answer to that one - at some tipping point soon most computer graphics work will probably come from those regions, as they are highly skilled and very talented artists, and although we have literally tens of thousands of plant models, we see very nice plant work coming out of Russia and Poland. two traditional hotbeds of highly trained and motivated artisans.

7. What do you think the future holds for your company? In which direction or directions will you be steering it?

Although we've created plants from all over the world, we would like to at some point known for having built many of the most important plants of the world - we have a scattering from each continent but if we could go further and have really nearly all the important plants represented in 3D computer graphics, that would be a nice legacy for our company. as both a historical effort and as a way to getting closer to representing reality inside movies, computer games, online worlds.

8. Any advice for developers?

Move to India, China, or other hotbed of development! That's what I would do if I was graduating college today.

9. Any thoughts about the future of CG, different platforms, social media?

Hardware improvement has been staggering . Software has not kept up. Social media is very primitive, look for very intense improvement, live chat, hd video, everyone plugging their iPhone into Facebook and having walls of talking heads in chat rooms . But we are getting very distant through it all aren't we? I mean, who calls each other anymore? I send 200 texts a day, and maybe make 1 phone call, if that. So it is all a bit disconnecting, isnt it?  I mean I am basically sending people telegraphs...

10. What do you think about the art that is made by people using your program, what would you like to see people do with Xfrog?

I'd like to see more abstract films. Some great efforts in Japan using Xfrog to make them, but i'd really like to see more.

11. What is your wish list in terms of hardware that would help you improve your program?

Everything is great with personal computers, they keep doubling in speed every two years, e.g. Moore's law.

Build Conf - Win 8 & PC Gaming? Stay tuned….

Matt Ployhar (Intel) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:07:33 +0000

Blogs tend to be rife with speculation & mine is often no exception! However; to be fair, a lot of what I know as an insider, and working from my previous employer, inhibits me from going all out. So advance apologies if anything I say seems ‘couched’ or ‘safe’.

Let me start out by saying that I’m keeping extremely close tabs on the Build conf this week. What we’ll get out of Build this week will hopefully be able to confirm or deny my own personal suspicion’s & hunches on the implications for PC Windows gaming. So I’ll skirt around this a bit by positioning all the following statements from the perspective of “What I’m hoping for out of Windows 8” fully well knowing what we’re likely going to end up seeing. This should be a fun exercise…

In no particular order here are the big ticket items of what I’m hoping for out of Windows 8:

1) Win 8 Gaming UI, quick to launch, access & buy Windows PC Games, from a Tile; and or integrated via Live with it’s own ‘channel’.
2) Win 8 Gaming in the Win 8 App Store!
3) Win 8 Gaming kept separate & unsullied by Xbox branding or titles
4) Win 8 Gaming fully integrated into the UI for the 1’ to 10’ experience.
5) Win 8 Gaming launches with a self or soft certification that’s easier on developers; with a compelling spec., target.
6) Win 8 Gaming marketed as being the innovation platform for the Kinect moving forward.
7) Win 8 Gaming SDK’s include enhancements for: Touch, Gesture, Facial Recognition, et al.
8) Win 8 Gaming co-marketed with several key OEMs & or Partners.
9) Win 8 has seamless games integration across devices allowing me to play my PC Games on varying form-factors. (TVs, Slates, SmartPhones, Laptops, etc) Includes saved states and device pairing. <-- Ah.. what a dream!
10) I have about 20 more I could list but by now I’m sure you all get where I’m going with this….

Hopefully at least a few of my wish list items are fulfilled. My guess is that we’ll see some additional FUD factors coming out of Build contributing to the misnomer that is “Post PC Era”.

So.. lets all stay tuned for Windows 8. My next blog will be about dissecting the above vs. what was announced in Win 8 this week.

How should Intel® Software Partner Program and the Intel® Software Network evolve in 2011?

Patricia Miron (Intel) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:04:35 +0000

For me fall is all about change. It's the change you can't miss as we go from the warm and lazy days of summer to the crisp cool mornings of fall. It’s also a changing season here at Intel as we
look at ways to further evolve the Intel® Software Partner Program and the Intel® Software Network – a key component to our strategic plans for 2011. Both programs have been around for several years and have been very successful in building relationships with software companies and software developers respectively worldwide. But lately, it appears that the line between developer and software companies is blurring, as well as the line between business and technical needs within the software community. So we are looking at how we can bring these two programs closer together as well as provide greater value to the broad software community, which we so eloquently describe as “anyone who writes or cares about software code”.

So in my first blog ever (on any topic) I want to ask you all a few questions. We have been experimenting with some new offerings like online-networking and digital content distribution but on a fairly small scale. We have also “talked” with many of you via focus groups and surveys, but there is something to be said about more “free flow” discussions. So here is what I’d really like to better understand to kick off this on-going discussion:

•What do you really value from ISN and the Software partner Program? In other words what do you use regularly and just can’t live without?
•What would you really value getting from Intel either as a technical offering or as a business offering or something in between?

Oh, and also I would love to get some suggestion on how we should collectively refer to the broad group of people who create and bring to market products and services that are based on software. Clearly “anyone who writes or cares about software code” does not roll off the tongue!

I'm looking forward to a lively discussion on where we should go with Intel® Software Partner Program and the Intel® Software Network in 2011.

Intel Threading Challenge 2010: One Down, Three to Go

Clay Breshears (Intel) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:15:58 +0000

The first problem in Phase 2 of the 2010 Intel Threading Challenge contest has closed. I'm very pleased that we had over 20 entries across the two problem classes from around the world. Right now the judging staff is preparing to begin compiling and running the enter applications against the chosen data sets.

The biggest change for this contest is the use of the Intel(R) Manycore Testing Lab. The shared platforms allow contestants to have access to hardware and software that is the same as that used by the judges when evaluating the entered codes. Contestants are now able to tune their entries to the exact machine specs rather than having to code "in the dark" and hope that their solution will execute well when the judges test it. For the judges, the hope is that entries will compile and run without any modifications. (In the past, working through differences in systems, libraries used, and compiler versions between the diverse set of development platforms used and the platforms used for scoring took many hours.)

As with previous problems, the clever participants were able to think beyond the scope envisioned by the judges as the problem descriptions were written up. This led to some long discussions clarifications of the original problem intentions within the ISN forums devoted to the problems. We expect it all worked out well enough for all participants. The judges have taken these discussions to heart and, hopefully, have been able to anticipate better the loopholes that might be found in the current and upcoming problems.

Best of luck to those that submitted an entry for this first problem of Phase 2. If you missed the deadline for the first problem, it is not too late to get started. The second problem has been posted and will end at noon (PDT) on 20 SEP 2010. Each problem awards prizes to the top three point total entries and the grand prize will be given to the contestant with the highest combined point total from their top three scoring entries. Go to the Threading Challenge 2010 page for details on the problems and how to enter.

Accelerate your Media

Rick Puckett (Intel) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:51:27 +0000

Are you familiar with the Intel Media SDK? If not, here is a great video that explains how it works and the benefits of using a single API. This is good stuff. Check it out here!

Let the Parallel Coding Resume!

Clay Breshears (Intel) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:10:14 +0000

Phase 1 of the  Intel Threading Challenge 2010contest ended a few weeks ago. If you participated in the Phase 1 contest, I hope you got some rest and could enjoy a portion of the Summer months; if you didn't participate, I hope you were studying up on your parallel methods, algorithms and programming libraries. For the judging and support staff it has been a busy past couple of weeks. For one thing, I discussed how I would have approached solving both of the Phase 1 Apprentice level problems on a recent episode (#88) of Parallel Programming Talk.

We've been getting ready for the Phase 2 launch on Monday, 09 AUG. Phase 2 is where you can earn the big prizes. If you didn't have the chance to enter solutions for any of the Phase 1 problems, don't worry. The problems in Phase 1 have been put behind us and we'll be starting everyone off with a blank slate. Your top three scoring entries for Phase 2 submissions will be used to determine the overall contest winners. So, even if you miss one of the four problems, you still have the chance to take home a top prize.

The biggest addition to the contest for Phase 2 is the availability of a shared platform on which contestants can develop and tune their applications. The Intel(R) Manycore Testing Lab (MTL) will be made available to Threading Challenge contestants. Use of the MTL will give participants the opportunity to write and test their code on systems exactly configured to what the judges will be using to score submitted entries. No more guessing about if your code will build or how it will run. (There is no requirement to use the MTL for any part of the contest. It is strictly an optional alternative being made available to those that wish to use it.)

Having a shared machine available has always been a dream of the contest organizers and we're excited to see how this will work out for the Phase 2 portion of this year's contest. For more details on the MTL and how to apply for an account on the machine, see the Threading Challenge 2010 contest home page or click here to send an email to request an account.

With universities and colleges starting back to school soon, we hope that faculty will take advantage of the Threading Challenge contest by urging their students to participate and sharpen their parallel programming skills or to just have fun.

There are plenty of resources available through the ISN Parallel Programming Community pages to find help and advice about threaded coding. The Intel Guide for Developing Multithreaded Applications can be a good place to learn a trick or two that might give your code that extra performance boost to beat all others.

Everybody, at one time or other, feels they've got to prove something to the rest of the world. This is your chance to show off your parallel programming skills and come away with fame, glory, and prizes. I'm inviting you to code against and learn from and join the ranks of the next generation of parallel programming superstars.

(Disclaimer: Amount of fame and glory achieved may vary. Fame and glory unavailable where prohibited by law.)

Introducing...Concurrent Collections for distributed memory systems (distCnC)

Melanie Blower (Intel) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:34:51 +0000

Intel has just released Intel® Concurrent Collections for C++ update 0.5. One of the interesting features in this update is an optional extension/plugin to the “normal” runtime system that allows the CnC graph to be executed on distributed memory systems. This article shows you how to enable your CnC program to run on a distributed memory system.

In principle, any correct shared memory CnC program should also run correctly with distCnC. The mechanics of data distribution etc. are handled almost entirely inside the distCnC runtime and the programmer does not need to be concerned with the details. Of course, there are a few minor changes needed to make a program distCnC-ready, but once that's done, it will run on distributed CnC as well as on the shared memory model ("normal") CnC.

A sample program using distCnC, mandel, is included in the 0.5 Cnc update.

Inter-process communication

Conceptually, distCnC allows data and computation distribution across any kind of network; but currently only a socket-based communication model is provided. In the future, MPI-based communication model might be supported.

Linking for distCnC

distCnC is included in the 0.5 CnC update: the download comes with the necessary communication libraries (cnc_socket). The communication library is loaded on demand at runtime, hence you do not need to link against extra libraries to create distCnC-ready application. Just link your binaries like a shared memory model CnC application. Details about linking are available in the CnC User Guide.

Making your program distCnC-ready

1. Include the distributed version of CnC headers

A distributed version of a CnC program needs to #include a different version of the CnC headers. If you want to be able to create optimized binaries for shared memory and distributed memory from the same source, you might consider protecting distCnC specifics like this:

#ifdef _DIST_ # include "cnc/dist_cnc.h" #else # include "cnc/cnc.h" #endif

2. Modify the main procedure to initialize all CnC contexts used in the program.
In "main", initialize an object CnC::dist_cnc_init before anything else; parameters should be all context-types used in the program:

#ifdef _DIST_ CnC::dist_cnc_init _dinit; #endif

Please note:

Special handling is needed if your items and/or tags are non-standard data types, in this case, the compiler will notify you about the need for serialization.. See the runtime_api document for more information about serialization.

Step instances are distributed across clients and the host. By default, they are distributed in a round-robin fashion. Note that every process can put tags (and so prescribe new step instances). The round-robin distribution decision is made locally on each process (not globally).

If the same tag is put multiple times, it might be scheduled for execution on different processes and the preserveTags attribute of tag_collections will then not have the desired effect. See the runtime_api document for more information about how to provide a tuner to control the distribution strategy.

Restrictions:

• Pointers as tags are not yet supported by distCnC. However, it is possible to implement a serializable wrapper for pointers.
• Global variables must not be used within the execution scope of steps.
• "Global" attributes of collections (e.g. size(), iteration, etc.) must not be used while steps are being executed (e.g. within the dynamic scope of step-code).

Special host and client start-up requirements for using distCnC over sockets

A sample distCnC startup script is provided in the 0.5 CnC update to start the distributed host and client applications. You need to modify the startup script to set the number of clients and replace "localhost" with the names of the machines you want the application(-clients) to be started on. On Linux, it requires password-less login via ssh. It also gives some details of the start-up procedure. For windows, the script "start.bat" does the same, except that it will start the clients on the same machine without ssh or alike. Adjust the script to use your preferred remote login mechanism.

Concurrent Collections for C++ is under active development at Intel and we are looking for users in the field to try it out and give us some feedback, while it is still in the experimental stage. The download is free.

Writing applications for Netbooks - an opportunity not to be missed.

Stephen Blair-Chappell (Intel) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:54:16 +0000

I recently attended a fascinating conference about monetising mobile. With about 60% of the 200 or so attendees being software developers. the conference had a good technical edge to it.    Dietrich Banschbach one of the directors of SSG at intel, reminded us that by the end of the year there would be more than 100 million netbooks in circulation.

One of the questions that Dietrich fielded was "why is intel attending a mobile software conference". It wasn't long into the answer before the audience understood what Intel had to offer -  different flavours of the Atom processor coming out; Atom-based smartphones on the horizon; the release of the Meego mobile operating system;the support for applications via the Intel Atom Developer Program, the support for application development through such tools as Intel Parallel Studio. etc, etc.

At the conference we heard about how many individual developers were making money writing applications for the mobile phone. After attending the conference I got to thinking about the opportunites for being successful by writing Netbook Apps. I even wrote a blog about it How to become stinking rich writing netbook apps (please don't pass this on) !

100 million netbooks! So are there really that many netbooks out there? When I look around my house I see 5 netbooks. OK . three are for work, but the other two were bought for normal domestic use. Also whan I look at what my friends are buying, then many of them have netbooks. Not a very scientific survey, but my anectdotal data leaves me to believe that there are lot's of opportunities to be had.

Along with this 'golden opportunity, there is a chance to be ahead of your competition by using the productivity of the Intel Parallel studio to make your design-winning application even faster.

I wish you all success in writing netbook applications.

-Stephen

Watch new video on new Intel Media Checker, a software assessment tool for media acceleration

Jeff Kataoka (Intel) — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:13:41 +0000

In April, the Intel Software Partner Program released a new software assessment tool called the Intel Media Checker. The Intel Media Checker helps developers that are creating media applications that utilize the Intel Media SDK. Watch a video interview on YouTube about the new Intel Media Checker.

To find out more about these new software assessment tools, visit the Intel Software Assessment Tools page on the the Intel Software Partner Program website. Enroll in Intel Software Partner Program today and learn how the program can help you deliver innovative solutions.

Members that use one of the software assessment tools with their software and complete their software project by July 16, 2010 can enter the Fast Track Experience Competition to Win a Trip to IDF San Francisco in September 2010. Learn more today.

Legends Wanted! We have them. Want application visibility? Become a Legend.

Maryann Iannitti (Intel) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:19:10 +0000

We wanted legendary software developers and we got them. Five to start and many more to follow. The Legends program is a new way to share the story behind the applications. We all love great applications but how did the application come to be… developer(s). Legends is a way to learn how other developers have taken advantage of the Intel Atom Developer Program and the Intel AppUp Center.

read more

How SCRUM changed my life

Nachman Israel (Intel) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:24:23 +0000

I've been doing SCRUM for over a year and a half now. As any methodology it has its pros and con cons (although, based on some other blogs I've seen, I'm guessing some people won't admit it has its down-sides). One of the things I like most about SCRUM is that once every sprint the whole team sits down and tries to figure out how we can do it better next time, and we usually come up with useful and original ideas that improve our work (and those that don't we get rid of three weeks later...).
On a different note.
My younger son had an operation, and my wife's parent helped out with the older one. We were very thankful for their help, but when the family was re-united we found that the older one had developed a serious sweets-addiction. Our days were constant "I want a cookie now" "not now" "when can I have?" "after you eat" "ok, all done" "here's a cookie" "can I have another one?" "you just had one" "I'll take it myself, I don't care" "if you do, you're going straight to your room" "wa wa wa" "grrr grrr grrr"; all he could think of was his next cookie and all we could do is try and keep it down to a reasonable amount. It wasn't a lot of fun.
One night I told my wife that there had to be some solution, there must be something that we could do to fix this, and I came up with an idea. He had just turned four, and I said "why don't we tell him that now that he is four, he is responsible for when he takes sweets". We prepared a few bags, each with some goodies, and put them in the cabinet where he could reach. We told him the next day that every day he gets one such bag; he can take it when he wants, eat it all at once or over a few hours, and he doesn't need to ask for our permission; and when he finishes one bag that's it for the day. And you know what? It worked! No more arguments and battles, and he was very pleased with the fact that he could take cookies without asking.
I was a very proud dad.
And then it hit me. The fact that I sat down to try to figure out how to tackle this issue was because practicing SCRUM had taught me that that is the way to get things done. And when my kid grows up and finds he is not addicted to junk food, I will be sure to tell him he can thank Agile programming.

My Netbook Journey - Finding the fruits of the garden with my Atom

Michael Shadle (Intel) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:18:22 +0000

My PDA died. It was an old Palm and had served me well. I asked my teammate to recommend a new one and he said “iPod Touch”. I took his advice and OMG, I have been living on another planet! Sure I used my Palm to keep myself organized, but it was never what I would call fun and there were weeks when I never turned it on. My Touch has hardly been off other than sleep & work time.

So what does this have to do with my Atom netbook? Plenty, because while I praised the AppUp site creation in my previous blog, I really had no idea what the potential impact could be until I started adding aps to my iPod. Now I really “get it” and I am hoping more software developers will too so I can have as much fun with my netbook as I am having with my Touch.

I also wanted to be productive with my netbook and not just see it as another electronic game device. I bought myself a new camera (Canon Rebel) that I use on road trips and one frustrating thing has been coming home and finding that photos that looked good on the tiny camera screen were in fact not so great. Lugging a full size laptop around just so I can check my photos before I leave a shoot is not my idea of fun. But my netbook is perfect for the job. The screen is large enough for me to judge if the photo is what I wanted and it is light and small enough to fit in my camera bag. I downloaded Google’s Picasa (because AppUp does not yet offer what I needed) and I can now view and edit on the spot, saving me much remorse.

I’ve also begun a healthier eating plan and would like to be able to use my netbook to help with meal planning and exercise tracking. Are there apps for those? Ones that do not require I join something or go online? Come on developers, help me and thousands of others in our quest for a healthier lifestyle.

Thanks for joining me on my journey. Until next time…