Intel Parallel StudioXE

After you play with Intel Parallel Studio a bit, let's just say that the experience becomes a welcome trip outside the wildness of what you get with a multithreaded application. Intel Parallel Studio features a toolbox of different choices that have a purpose for helping multithreaded applications. You have three Visual Studio plugins with this software, which means you will need the complete Visual Studio software over the Express edition.

Since that first beta stage, Intel has added tons of online guides and documentation. Along with that, they have additional samples that can be helpful. You do, however, still have room for improvements. The beta stage has passed now, and Intel provides you with a complete selection of tools. You do have a little room for improvement but not by much. One example is the videos presented in Parallel Stduio. You have a simple sample that shows you how all the plugins can be used at the same time. To resolve it, you can use the NQueens solution, and there is also the main composer example.

When it comes to Intel's workflow, you have the Adviser and the Composer that can debug the parallelization. The inspector tool will look for contentions and the profile application. Looking at Parallel's Composer, this feature mostly acts as an extension of Visual Studio's debugger. This feature works off the Intel runtime, and you will have to use the Intel C++ Compiler. When Intel created this software, it set a goal to provide better for its developers. You can even use this feature to debug several separate processes at the same time, and Intel gives you a tutorial that can guide you throughout the process. However, when you compare the documentation with this important feature to two of the lesser features, Composer probably has the shortest documentation.

Another feature is Parallel Inspector, and this software detects problems with memory and thread memory issues. It depends on the inspection level, but the execution time will sometimes take several times longer than normal. Whenever a problem starts to detect, it will be assigned what is known as a gravity degree. That registers in the list, and you will have access to the source code from its location. With Linux, you may have to preload a library to detect the leaks in memory.

Finally, you have Parallel Amplifier, and this profiler is similar to what you might find with Visual Studio's Team edition. Intel sells this as a stand-alone product, but the ultimate goal is to find where to send the application. Overall, both the Inspector and the Amplifier of this product are intuitive, and you have a software that is efficient overall, and it solves some difficult problems.

Pros

• Plenty of Tutorials and Guides to Help
• Includes a C++ Compiler
• Plenty of Different Tools to Help
• Code is Not Intrusive

Cons

• The Software Still Has Room for Improvement
• Parallel Composer Could Benefit from More Documentation