Is there a list of multi-threaded applications?

There has been a lot of talk about new CPUs with 8 (or more) cores capable of running 16 (or more) simultaneous instruction streams (threads). But this has a real benefit only of an application is multi-threaded, meaning it can split it's processing job up into multiple, simultaneous instruction streams that the CPU can process in parallel.

In the world of 3D product design and 3D printing this can make a huge difference - far greater than any difference due to CPU cycle time. But so far there are very few applications that can actually do multi-threading. It would be nice to see a list of apps that are multi-threaded, since these will run much faster than single threaded ones.

bbinnard said:

...do multi-threading. It would be nice to see a list of apps that are multi-threaded, since these will run much faster than single threaded ones.

Only if their workload can be spread across multiple threads. This can only be done for operations that are not dependent, that can run out of sequence.

See: Parallel computing - Wikipedia


And for the record, most applications are multi-threaded. Open Task Manager > Details > Right-Click on the column headers > Select Columns > Threads. Majority of the time an application is running UI threads, processing threads, and so forth.

Cliff S said:

Nice post, but I think the OP means CPU core threads, and that's different than program threads.

Well yes there is that, but when you are working in the confines of the Windows Programming Model, you generally don't work directly with CPU threads (We are not in the old DOS days anymore.) You go though Windows. Directly working with the CPU is usually something only done in very special cases on special hardware configurations and not in Windows.

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Yes, I am fully aware of the differences between the multiple tasks shown by Task Manager and the ability of some applications to split their workload into multiple parallel processes that can run simultaneously. It is the latter concept I was addressing.

One good example of this is the Vegas video editor program. As anyone who does video editing knows, rendering the final output to a viewable video file is the most CPU intensive part of the entire editing process. Vegas has the ability to break this into as many individual processes as its CPU can provide - on my i7 CPU I typcally specify 8; this allows the rendering process to finish in far less time than if there were only 1.

Another example is slicing a 3D printable model to produce the required GCode to run a 3D printer. Most slicing programs today are single threaded, but the one I use (Craftware) uses all the CPU power from all the i7's cores, and so it slices complex 3D models far faster than any other slicer.

My original question was whether or not there was a list of multi-thread capable programs, ,because these will always process far faster than comparable single-threaded ones. Of course, to be multi-threaded, an application's workload has to be able to be broken down into multiple parallel parts, and the application developers have to be able to write code that supports parallel processing. I recognize that this is a major departure from the single-threaded approach most software development has used to date, but my experience so far shows that multi-threading produces far greater performance improvements than relatively small improvements in CPU cycle times.

That;s great - just what i was looking for. Thanks,