A Good Introduction to C++ AMP

“C++ AMP: Accelerated Massive Parallelism with Microsoft Visual C++” is a good introduction to programming with C++ AMP. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, it is the only book available on C++ AMP, so I can only compare it with other books on CUDA and OpenCL.

But the book stands up to the comparison and has earned a solid 4 stars. I found the order in Chapter 2 to be a bit awkward, but that settled down in the next chapter. You should skip Chapter 2 during the first reading and only read it at the end. This is because Chapter 2 covers the somewhat more complicated n-body problem and even includes DirectX graphics. From a pedagogical standpoint, it is not wise to deal with this at the beginning.

Then there are a few minor details, such as the fact that std::vector<> and std::shared_ptr<> are constantly written out in the program code. The std:: bothers me.

But all in all, after reading this book, you are already an advanced GPU programmer who has a good understanding of the subject. Prior knowledge of C++, STL, and parallel programming is required. The example programs have been adapted for VS 13.

• Kate Gregory, Ade Miller
• C++ AMP: Accelerated Massive Parallelism with Microsoft Visual C++
• Microsoft Press
• 2012

See also the review on Amazon.