SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - January 28, 2010) - The first textbook of its kind, "Programming
Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach" launches today, authored by Dr.
David B. Kirk, NVIDIA Fellow and former chief scientist, and Dr. Wen-mei Hwu, who
serves at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as Chair of Electrical and
Computer Engineering in the Coordinated Science Laboratory, co-director of the
Universal Parallel Computing Research Center and principal investigator of the CUDA
Center of Excellence.
The textbook, which is 256 pages, is the first aimed at teaching advanced students
and professionals the basic concepts of parallel programming and GPU architectures.
Published by Morgan-Kauffman, it explores various techniques for constructing
parallel programs and reviews numerous case studies.
With conventional CPU-based computing no longer scaling in performance and the
world's computational challenges increasing in complexity, the need for massively
parallel processing has never been greater. GPUs have hundreds of cores capable of
delivering transformative performance increases across a wide range of computational
challenges. The rise of these multi-core architectures has raised the need to teach
advanced programmers a new and essential skill: how to program massively parallel
processors.
"I'd like to personally congratulate David and Wen-mei for writing this landmark
book and enabling generations of student programmers to understand and exploit the
massively parallel architecture of GPUs," said Bill Dally, chief scientist at NVIDIA
and former chairman of Stanford University's computer science department. "As a
former professor, I have seen firsthand how seminal texts like this can transform a
field. I look forward to seeing the transformation of computing as students are
inspired and guided to master GPU computing by this book."
Among the book's key features:
- First and only text that teaches how to program within a massively parallel
environment
- Portions of the NVIDIA-provided content have been part of the curriculum at 300
universities worldwide
- Drafts of sections of the book have been tested and taught by Kirk at the
University of Illinois
- Book utilizes OpenCL™ and CUDA™ C, the NVIDIA® parallel computing
language developed specifically for massively parallel environments
For more information on "Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on
Approach," please visit the
microsite. The book
is available to purchase directly from
Elsevier or
Amazon.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (
NASDAQ:
NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it
invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999. Since then, it has consistently
set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics
available on devices ranging from portable media players to notebooks to
workstations. NVIDIA's expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in
parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible.
Fortune magazine has ranked NVIDIA #1 in innovation in the semiconductor industry
for two years in a row. For more information, see
www.nvidia.com.
Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements
as to: the benefits, features, impact, performance and capabilities of NVIDIA GPUs;
and the impact of "Programming Massively Parallel Processors: A Hands-on Approach"
are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that
could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially include: development of more
efficient or faster technology; design, manufacturing or software defects; the
impact of technological development and competition; changes in consumer preferences
and demands; customer adoption of different standards or our competitor's products;
changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our
products or technologies when integrated into systems as well as other factors
detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and
Exchange Commission including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended October 25,
2009. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on our website and are
available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not
guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except
as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking
statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
© 2010 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, Tesla,
CUDA, GeForce and Quadro are trademarks or registered trademarks of NVIDIA
Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be
trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features,
pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.
OpenCL is a trademark of Apple Inc. used under license to the Khronos Group Inc.
Contact Information: For more information, contact:
Andrew Humber
NVIDIA Corporation
(408) 416 7943
ahumber@nvidia.com