GPGPU, VS 10, C++ AMP, MS Platform, MS, Etc.
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This is a request for MS "insider" info. At home, I've been using VC++ 6 Pro for all these years (> a decade). Postponed buying a new version out of many reasons, e.g. being out of money and job. (I did talk about it in 2001 at The Lounge here, while I was still in the SF Bay Area---but without any success. (Some (past) graduate students of astronomy/astrophysics from CA (probably of the Republican party disposition) might say: "of course!" (though party lines hardly seem to matter in such things, as far as Americans etc. and I go). And, BTW, MS Research had an office in the SF Bay Area right back then. And, BTW, I did support MS during the DoJ case times. I have learnt my lessons---and have begun using these too, say, as via exposing the dishonest money/prestige/reputation grabbers, whether at MS or at SUN/Oracle/etc., or from elsewhere.) Alright. Recently, I began thinking of buying Visual Studio 10 Pro. Then, I came across the recent C++ AMP announcements, e.g. here [^]. My questions are: When is C++ AMP actually coming? Why is there no excitement about it here at CodeProject? (Googling on "C++ AMP CodeProject" returns nothing.) How well would C++ AMP be integrated with VS 10? When? Is a newer version of VS (say, VS 11) expected soon? If soon enough (say after 6--8 months), would it be expected to have a better version/integration of C++ AMP than that in VS 10? Do you (or does Microsoft) think that for GPGPU, C++ AMP + VS 10 offer great value addition as compared to, say, using GPGPU on Linux via OpenCL? In short: Should I wait and watch, or is it OK to invest my hard-earned money into VS 10 Pro right away, given that GPGPU is of some serious interest to me (but not too much, as of today)? Thanks in advance. --Ajit [E&OE]
---------- http://www.JadhavResearch.net
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This is a request for MS "insider" info. At home, I've been using VC++ 6 Pro for all these years (> a decade). Postponed buying a new version out of many reasons, e.g. being out of money and job. (I did talk about it in 2001 at The Lounge here, while I was still in the SF Bay Area---but without any success. (Some (past) graduate students of astronomy/astrophysics from CA (probably of the Republican party disposition) might say: "of course!" (though party lines hardly seem to matter in such things, as far as Americans etc. and I go). And, BTW, MS Research had an office in the SF Bay Area right back then. And, BTW, I did support MS during the DoJ case times. I have learnt my lessons---and have begun using these too, say, as via exposing the dishonest money/prestige/reputation grabbers, whether at MS or at SUN/Oracle/etc., or from elsewhere.) Alright. Recently, I began thinking of buying Visual Studio 10 Pro. Then, I came across the recent C++ AMP announcements, e.g. here [^]. My questions are: When is C++ AMP actually coming? Why is there no excitement about it here at CodeProject? (Googling on "C++ AMP CodeProject" returns nothing.) How well would C++ AMP be integrated with VS 10? When? Is a newer version of VS (say, VS 11) expected soon? If soon enough (say after 6--8 months), would it be expected to have a better version/integration of C++ AMP than that in VS 10? Do you (or does Microsoft) think that for GPGPU, C++ AMP + VS 10 offer great value addition as compared to, say, using GPGPU on Linux via OpenCL? In short: Should I wait and watch, or is it OK to invest my hard-earned money into VS 10 Pro right away, given that GPGPU is of some serious interest to me (but not too much, as of today)? Thanks in advance. --Ajit [E&OE]
---------- http://www.JadhavResearch.net
Why not get yourself a copy of the Express Edition(s)[^], which are free. This will help you get up to speed on the latest technologies before you decide which product(s) you want to invest in.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
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This is a request for MS "insider" info. At home, I've been using VC++ 6 Pro for all these years (> a decade). Postponed buying a new version out of many reasons, e.g. being out of money and job. (I did talk about it in 2001 at The Lounge here, while I was still in the SF Bay Area---but without any success. (Some (past) graduate students of astronomy/astrophysics from CA (probably of the Republican party disposition) might say: "of course!" (though party lines hardly seem to matter in such things, as far as Americans etc. and I go). And, BTW, MS Research had an office in the SF Bay Area right back then. And, BTW, I did support MS during the DoJ case times. I have learnt my lessons---and have begun using these too, say, as via exposing the dishonest money/prestige/reputation grabbers, whether at MS or at SUN/Oracle/etc., or from elsewhere.) Alright. Recently, I began thinking of buying Visual Studio 10 Pro. Then, I came across the recent C++ AMP announcements, e.g. here [^]. My questions are: When is C++ AMP actually coming? Why is there no excitement about it here at CodeProject? (Googling on "C++ AMP CodeProject" returns nothing.) How well would C++ AMP be integrated with VS 10? When? Is a newer version of VS (say, VS 11) expected soon? If soon enough (say after 6--8 months), would it be expected to have a better version/integration of C++ AMP than that in VS 10? Do you (or does Microsoft) think that for GPGPU, C++ AMP + VS 10 offer great value addition as compared to, say, using GPGPU on Linux via OpenCL? In short: Should I wait and watch, or is it OK to invest my hard-earned money into VS 10 Pro right away, given that GPGPU is of some serious interest to me (but not too much, as of today)? Thanks in advance. --Ajit [E&OE]
---------- http://www.JadhavResearch.net
We'll know more in September after the Microsoft Build conference. From what I can glean AMP will be part of Visual C++ 2012. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a beta before the end of the year. For now the best thing to do is get vs2010 express and start using the Parallel Patterns Library (PPL) and the Concurrent Runtime (concrt). These are the foundations on which AMP will be built and are great for building multi-core applications. Spend time learning c++ lambda functions (part of the C++0x standard). These are available in vsC++ 2010 and will be an important part of using AMP. It seems to me that the AMP functionality is similar to the Thrust library for programming nvidia CUDA so it might be worth spending time looking at that too.
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We'll know more in September after the Microsoft Build conference. From what I can glean AMP will be part of Visual C++ 2012. I wouldn't be surprised if we got a beta before the end of the year. For now the best thing to do is get vs2010 express and start using the Parallel Patterns Library (PPL) and the Concurrent Runtime (concrt). These are the foundations on which AMP will be built and are great for building multi-core applications. Spend time learning c++ lambda functions (part of the C++0x standard). These are available in vsC++ 2010 and will be an important part of using AMP. It seems to me that the AMP functionality is similar to the Thrust library for programming nvidia CUDA so it might be worth spending time looking at that too.
Hi Dango, I do have the VS2010 express edition. I will begin with PPL and concrt. I also have some idea about the lambda calculus; thanks for highlighting its importance in using the AMP. Also, I wasn't aware of Thrust at all. I will look it up. All in all, thanks for a neat and informative reply. Best, --Ajit [E&OE]
---------- http://www.JadhavResearch.net
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Why not get yourself a copy of the Express Edition(s)[^], which are free. This will help you get up to speed on the latest technologies before you decide which product(s) you want to invest in.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
Hi Richard, Thanks. I do have the VS2010 Express Edition at home. (I also have the 2010 Pro Edition at work, though for reasons like backward compatibility and all, I don't end up using it a lot.) However, the habit of using MFC and ATL is hard to break, and the absence of even ATL in Express Edition was a noticeable inconvenience. So, I was thinking of buying the Pro edition also for use at home, esp. now that they announced AMP right in VS 2010, too. Anyway, as Dango's reply (below) indicates, I will wait and watch for some time before actually buying the Pro version. Best, --Ajit [E&OE]
---------- http://www.JadhavResearch.net
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Hi Dango, I do have the VS2010 express edition. I will begin with PPL and concrt. I also have some idea about the lambda calculus; thanks for highlighting its importance in using the AMP. Also, I wasn't aware of Thrust at all. I will look it up. All in all, thanks for a neat and informative reply. Best, --Ajit [E&OE]
---------- http://www.JadhavResearch.net
It's also worth noting that sometimes MS will showcase a technology like this where all the demos work in the current VS but then when the next VS comes out they drop support for the previous! Either that or they only provide full integration in the new version. So playing with VS Express for now is a good idea.
Kevin