Intel Thread Checker for Windows

by Intel

Overview

Intel® Threading Tools make it easier to create multithreaded applications that take advantage of the performance benefits of Hyper-Threading Technology included in Intel® Pentium and Intel® Xeon? processor-based computer systems. Hyper-Threading Technology from Intel enables the processor to execute two threads (parts of a software program) in parallel ? so your software can run more efficiently.

Intel Threading Tools include Intel® Thread Checker, to locate threading errors, and Thread Profiler to identify thread performance issues.

Intel Thread Checker automatically locates bugs in threaded software that might otherwise go undetected. It eliminates this guesswork and pinpoints the location of errors to help quickly analyze and correct them.

Intel Thread Checker graphical displays and groups errors by context for easy review. It can identify six levels of threading issues, from errors and warnings to informative comments. In addition, it classifies each issue it finds for easy prioritization: errors, warnings, cautions, informational and remarks. Sort errors by severity to focus on the most important issues first. Sorting by file lets you focus on bugs you own. Once you find the bugs, easily drill down to the root causes with several graphical tools.
Thread Profiler monitors your application?s execution to detect threading performance issues, including thread overhead and synchronization impact. Thread Profiler provides graphical displays to help analyze and correct threading bottlenecks for Win32 or OpenMP threaded software.

Features and Benefits

• Automatic Error Detection saves time to create enough tests to catch the common, uncommon, and intermittent threading bugs
• Detection of race conditions, thread deadlocks, and thread stalls saves execution time by finding even subtle parallel programming issues
• Bug Isolation shows exactly which variables are causing the bug, where variables get used by the threads, where variables are declared, and the call stack to offending lines of code
• Compatibility with Win32 APIs for Threads, C runtime library functions, and OpenMP ? Uses familiar Win32 API and C runtime library function plus all OpenMP pragmas and clauses
• Choose any of several Microsoft compilers to build your software for analysis
• Intel® Fortran and Intel® C++ Compilers ? Displays additional details and the actual variable names, even when using pointers, if you build your software with an Intel compiler and the /Qtcheck command-line option
• Trial version is available
  

What?s New in the Intel Thread Checker 1.0 for Windows

• Integration with the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET means you can run Intel Thread Checker and view results in the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET development environment.
• With the choice of more compilers to build your software, you can select the compiler to build your software for analysis: Intel® C++ Compiler, 7.0 or higher; Intel® Fortran Compiler 7.0 or higher; Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 2002, 2003 Editions; and Microsoft Visual C++, 6.0.
• Provides one-click help for diagnostics to show possible causes and solution. When using the diagnostic view, just right click for diagnostic help.
• Supports user-defined synchronization primitives, if you do not use Win32 or OpenMP libraries.
• Now supports thread-count dependent OpenMP APIs and nested OpenMP parallel regions.
  

Get Insight into Threading Glitches

Intel Thread Checker helps you find and fix threading errors in Win32 and OpenMP threaded software, letting you tune your threaded software for better performance.

Works Within Visual Studio

Use Intel Thread Checker within the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET development environment. Thread Checker is compatible with the Win32 APIs for Threads, the C runtime library functions, and OpenMP pragmas and clauses. It is integrated with Intel® VTune? Performance Analyzer.

Intel® Premier Support Included with Every License

Every purchase of an Intel® Software Development Product includes a year of support services, which provides access to Intel® Premier Support and all product updates during that time. Intel Premier Support gives you online access to technical notes, application notes, and documentation. Install the product, and then register to get support and product update information.