Managed World

The latest CTP for Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework was released out to the intarw3bs today (Go Digg It on Digg and Kick It on DotNetKicks). This is the second major CTP for the Parallel Extensions.

If you're the kind of person who likes to just get the latest install and play around, you can find it here. If, however, you are a person who would like to read some resources about the new CTP first, there's a bunch of links for you as well:

• Ed Essey announces the release on the Parallel Extensions Team Blog
• Ed outlines the new features in this CTP
• Ed talks about the known issues with this CTP
• Joe discusses the new release
• Ed on why feedback is important to the team

Here are some of the reactions (or re-announcements) from other bloggers:

• Damon Payne on the release
• Tamir Khason on the release
• Brian Spann on the release

I think a very important quote from Joe is (emphasis mine):

"I'm really excited to see our entire stack finally shipping as one cohesive unit: the data structures we use throughout the implementation exposed publicly (what we now call CDS), a new scheduler built from the ground up, TPL and PLINQ better together, and lots more."

I find this release very exciting, especially the "cohesive unit" part. As Ed mentions in the new features post, PLINQ is now running directly on top of TPL, rather than using the ThreadPool like it did before. The data structures used internally are now exposed as CDS. TPL with many improvements to the scheduler. This is a very great CTP for the Parallel Extensions Team. So congratulations to the team!

If you want to play around with concurrent programming in .NET, Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework is the place to be. The team really wants your feedback and, through this feedback, you can help shape the future of concurrent programming in .NET. How exciting is that?!? So go grab the bits, install them, and enjoy!

And if you're a Parallel Extensions fan, be sure to Digg It and Kick It!