Intel® Cilk++ SDK is an extension to C++ that offers a quick, easy and reliable way to improve the performance of C++ programs on multi-core processors. The Intel Cilk++ SDK, based on technology acquired from Cilk Arts in August, 2009, offers support for programmers using the GCC compiler for Linux* or the Microsoft C++ compiler for Windows*. The Intel Cilk++ SDK includes compiler support, runtime libraries, and tools for race detection, scalability and performance analysis. The three Cilk++ keywords provide a simple yet surprisingly powerful model for parallel programming, while runtime and template libraries offer a well-tuned environment for building parallel applications. The Intel Cilk++ SDK allows you to:

* Write parallel programs using a simple model: With only three keywords to learn, C++ developers move quickly into the parallel programming domain.
* Optimize for parallel performance: Hyperobject libraries resolve race conditions without the performance overhead of traditional locking solutions, and the scalability analyzer predicts how performance will scale to systems with many more processors.
* Leverage existing serial tools: The serial semantics of Cilk++ allows you to debug in a familiar serial debugger.
* Verify the correctness of parallel programs: The race detector’s strong guarantee of race-free operation eliminates the worry that parallel bugs will compromise applications.
* Scale for the future: The runtime system operates smoothly on systems with hundreds of cores.

As multi-core systems become prevalent on desktops, servers and even laptop systems, new performance leaps will come as the industry adopts parallel programming techniques. However, many parallel environments consist of confusing, complex and error-prone rules and constructs. The Cilk++ language, built on the Cilk technology developed at M.I.T. over the past two decades, is designed to provide a simple, well-structured model that makes development, verification and analysis easy. Because Cilk++ is an extension to C++, programmers typically do not need to restructure programs significantly in order to add parallelism.

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