In this special guest feature, James Reinders looks at Intel Xeon Phi processors from a programmer’s perspective. “How does a programmer think of Intel Xeon Phi processors? In this brief article, I will convey how I, as a programmer, think of them. In subsequent articles, I will dive a bit more into details of various programming modes, and techniques employed for some key applications. In this article, I will endeavor to not stray into deep details – but rather offer an approachable perspective on how to think about programming for Intel Xeon Phi processors.”