Why This Course Is Important

Everything is parallel today. It's basically impossible to buy a single-core PC nowadays, and even smart phones are now dual core. Any server is multi-threaded, and a number of languages now have threading built-in, such as C++11.

Yet employers complain that skill in parallel programming is in short supply. Having that skill is a big advantage in the job market.

One student who interviewed for jobs when he was taking ECS 158 wrote to me about one interview he had had:

The senior advanced systems engineer asked me several questions about multi-threading including several on how to go by debugging pthreads code...I was well prepared!

He followed up a few days later:

I got a job offer from two different departments including the interview with the Senior Manager Software Engineer who asked me about pthreads. I got an offer and am taking the job with him...

[Goes into detail on the questions he was asked.]

...I definitely would not have gotten the offer if it weren't for this class.