The very good Threading Building Blocks library from Intel, released last year around this time as 1.0 and being updated soon, has been \<a href="http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20070724fact.htm%3fiid%3dpr1_releasepri_20070724fact"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open-sourced by Intel. This is a hardcore C++ template library, but has some great-looking libraries and algorithms (lots of lock-free data structures). I've been unable to actually use the library, as my multicore system is AMD Opteron-based (just because I live in the tropics doesn't mean I can't appreciate an even warmer room). With quad-core systems available under \\(1000 and the Q6600 now at \\)375 from Newegg, there's a great temptation, but I'm going to try to resist until I can build an 8-core machine, which to my mind is the inflection point from "multicore" to "manycore."