In Praise of An Introduction to Parallel Programming
With the coming of multicore processors and the cloud, parallel computing is most cer-
tainly not a niche area off in a corner of the computing world. Parallelism has become
central to the efficient use of resources, and this new textbook by Peter Pacheco will go a
long way toward introducing students early in their academic careers to both the art and
practice of parallel computing.
Duncan Buell
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of South Carolina
An Introduction to Parallel Programming illustrates fundamental programming principles
in the increasingly important area of shared-memory programming using Pthreads and
OpenMP and distributed-memory programming using MPI. More important, it empha-
sizes good programming practices by indicating potential performance pitfalls. These
topics are presented in the context of a variety of disciplines, including computer science,
physics, and mathematics. The chapters include numerous programming exercises that
range from easy to very challenging. This is an ideal book for students or professionals
looking to learn parallel programming skills or to refresh their knowledge.
Leigh Little
Department of Computational Science
The College at Brockport, The State University of New York
An Introduction to Parallel Programming is a well-written, comprehensive book on the
field of parallel computing. Students and practitioners alike will appreciate the rele-
vant, up-to-date information. Peter Pacheco’s very accessible writing style, combined
with numerous interesting examples, keeps the reader’s attention. In a field that races
forward at a dizzying pace, this book hangs on for the wild ride covering the ins and outs
of parallel hardware and software.
Kathy J. Liszka
Department of Computer Science
University of Akron
Parallel computing is the future and this book really helps introduce this complicated
subject with practical and useful examples.
Andrew N. Sloss, FBCS
Consultant Engineer, ARM
Author of ARM System Developer’s Guide
