.NET Framework Download .NET Tutorial: Building multi-threading into .NET applications is a powerful tool for the developer. It empowers applications that demand high scalability, such as enterprise applications, as well as desktop applications that need to process more than one task at the same time.

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Introduction

By Matt Gillespie

Building multi-threading into .NET* applications is a powerful tool for the developer. It empowers applications that demand high scalability, such as enterprise applications, as well as desktop applications that need to process more than one task at the same time. In order to enable multi-threading technology, Intel developed Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) for the Pentium® 4 processor on the desktop and the Intel® Xeon™ processor for workstations and servers. These platforms make a particularly good choice for the deployment of threaded .NET solutions.

The coming trend of parallelism in hardware is that of multi-core processors, which will make multi-threading even more important. Intel has announced planes to introduce the first versions of both the Itanium® processor and the Pentium 4 processor that have multiple processor cores on a single die in 2005. These introductions will be followed in 2006 by the first multi-core Intel Xeon processors and Intel Xeon processors MP in 2006. As these and other advances make hardware platforms ever more parallel in nature, the stage is set for software threading to deliver ever-larger performance gains. Software makers that gear up for this advance now, stand to gain a competitive advantage as this trend continues.