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1. Overview and C++ AMP Approach > The C++ AMP Approach
The C++ AMP Approach
C++ AMP is a library and a small language extension that enables heterogeneous computing within a single C++ application. (AMP stands for Accelerated Massive Parallelism.) Visual Studio has new tools and capabilities to support debugging and profiling C++ AMP applications, including GPU debugging and GPU concurrency visualization. With C++ AMP, mainstream C++ developers can use familiar tools to create applications that are portable and future-proof and that can achieve dramatic acceleration for data-parallel-friendly applications.
One mission of C++ AMP is to bring GPGPU programming to every developer whose applications can benefit from it. The video cards required to support it are now almost ubiquitous. The overarching mission, however, is larger than just GPGPU: C++ AMP is a way to harness heterogeneous computing platforms, such as GPUs and CPU vector units, and make them accessible to millions of mainstream developers in ways that are not otherwise possible. Although the shift to data-parallel programming—and especially to portable implementations expressed in C++—is an enormous undertaking, it is not the first such transformation that has happened to the software development experience.
