The purpose of this book is to help you understand how to program shared-memory parallel machines without risking your sanity.1 By describing the algorithms and designs that have worked well in the past, we hope to help you avoid at least some of the pitfalls that have beset parallel projects. But you should think of this book as a foundation on which to build, rather than as a completed cathedral. Your mission, if you choose to accept, is to help make further progress in the exciting field of parallel programming, progress that should in time render this book obsolete. Parallel programming is not as hard as it is reputed, and it is hoped that this book makes it even
easier for you.

《深入理解并行编程》首先以霍金提出的两个理论物理限制为引子，解释了多核并行计算兴起的原因，并从硬件的角度阐述并行编程的难题。接着，《深入理解并行编程》以常见的计数器为例，探讨其不同的实现方法及适用场景。在这些实现方法中，除了介绍常见的锁以外，《深入理解并行编程》还重点介绍了RCU的使用及其原理，以及实现RCU的基础：内存屏障。最后，《深入理解并行编程》还介绍了并行软件的验证，以及并行实时计算等内容。
《深入理解并行编程》适合于对并行编程有兴趣的大学生、研究生，以及需要对项目进行深度性能优化的软硬件工程师，特别值得一提的是，《深入理解并行编程》对操作系统内核工程师也很有价值。