The purpose of this book is to help you understand how to program shared-memory parallel machines without risking your sanity.1 By describing the algorithms and designs that have worked well in the past, we hope to help you avoid at least some of the pitfalls that have beset parallel projects. But you should think of this book as a foundation on which to build, rather than as a completed cathedral. Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to help make further progress in the exciting field of parallel programming, progress that should in time render this book obsolete. Parallel programming is not as hard as it is reputed, and it is hoped that this book makes it even easier for you.

这本最新的权威著作致力于改变这种状况，作者全面阐述了多处理器编程的指导原则，介绍了编制高效的多处理器程序所必备的算法技术。了解本书所涵盖的多处理器编程关键问题将使在校学生以及相关技术人员受益匪浅。