Eclipse is an open-source integrated development environment (IDE) that offers many features you'd expect from a commercial quality IDE: a syntax-highlighting editor, incremental code compilation, a source-level debugger, support for source control systems such as CVS and Subversion, code refactoring, and support for multiple languages, including C, C++, and Fortran.

The Parallel Tools Platform (PTP) is an open-source Eclipse plug-in that provides a highly integrated environment designed for the development of applications suited for parallel computer systems. It provides cross-platform support for a wide range of parallel architectures and runtime systems; a scalable parallel debugger; and language tools to simplify the development of MPI and OpenMP programs. PTP is an Eclipse Foundation Tools Project (http://eclipse.org/ptp).

This tutorial aims to introduce participants to the PTP tool set and provide detailed information on developing and debugging parallel applications using the Eclipse platform. We will also explore the potential benefits of parallel programming for the enterprise environment, and discuss some planned features to support new advances in computing technology such as multi-core systems.