14 DAY TRIAL // With its next iteration of development platforms and tools, Microsoft is truly offering developers the necessary resources to streamline the building of parallel applications. In addition to Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4, the Redmond company also has a range of additional resources set up to support parallel programing. Case in point: a collection of articles designed to offer information on parallel programming in relation to the .NET Framework 4. A set of no less than ten articles are available for free via the Microsoft Download Center.
“The .NET Framework 4 includes extended support for writing parallel applications, through enhancements to the CLR itself as well as through new libraries commonly referred to as 'Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework.' The set of articles available in this download provides detailed information on Parallel Extension, including the Task Parallel Library (TPL), Parallel LINQ (PLINQ), and a set of new coordination primitives and thread-safe data structures. These articles provide insights into performance characteristics, usage patterns, best practices, integration of parallelism with other programming frameworks, and more,” Microsoft stated.
Developers can already get a taste of the final versions of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 with the Release Candidate development milestone that Microsoft made available recently. The RC is the final testing build offered to early adopters ahead of RTM. Microsoft is planning to have both Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 generally available on April 12th, 2010.
In addition to the “Articles on Parallel Programming with the .NET Framework 4,” devs can also grab “Patterns for Parallel Programming: Understanding and Applying Parallel Patterns with the .NET Framework 4” also on the Microsoft Download Center.
“This document provides a detailed and in-depth tour of support in the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 for parallel programming. This includes an examination of common parallel patterns and how they’re implemented without and with this new support in the .NET Framework, as well as covering best practices for developing parallel components utilizing parallel patterns,” the company added.
Visual Studio 2010 Premium Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Professional Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.
.NET Framework 4 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download here.