ParallelFX – High-level .NET libraries for data-parallel computation

Joe Duffy has posted links to two new articles in the October issue of MSDN Magazine which highlight two components of Microsoft’s ParallelFX project. The first introduces PLINQ, a data-parallel implementation of Microsoft’s new LINQ (Language-Integrated Query) tools for querying in-memory objects and XML.The second, titled “Parallel Performance: Optimize Managed Code For Multi-Core Machines”

describes the Task Parallel Library (TPL), a new “thread pool on steroids” with cancellation, waiting, and pool isolation support, among many other things. Uses dynamic work stealing techniques (see here and here) for superior scalability.

A community technology preview of ParallelFX will be available from Microsoft this Fall, and will require the .NET 3.5 runtime (and, of course, a Windows computer). No news yet on whether the Silverlight team intends to incorporate these technologies into their cross-platform, .NET-based web programming framework.