The Moth

In the distant past I talked about GPGPU and Microsoft's then approach of DirectCompute. Since then of course we now have C++ AMP coming out with Visual Studio 11, so there is a mainstream easier way for developers to access the GPU for compute purposes, using C++.

The question occasionally arises of how can a .NET developer access the GPU for compute purposes from their C# (or VB) code. The answer is by interoping from the managed code to a native DLL and in the native DLL use C++ AMP.

As a long term .NET developer myself, I can tell you this is straightforward. Sure, there could have been a managed wrapper for C++ AMP, but honestly that is the reason we have interop – it doesn't make much sense to invest resources to solve a problem that is already solved (most developer customers would prefer investments in other areas of Visual Studio!). Besides, interoping from C# to C++ is much easier than interoping to some of the other older approaches of GPGPU programming ;-)

To help you get started with the interop approach, Igor Ostrovsky has previously shared the "Hello World" version of interoping from C# to C++ AMP in his blog post:

• How to use C++ AMP from C#

…we then were asked specifically about how to interop from C# to C++ AMP in a Metro style application on Windows 8, so Igor delivered again with this post:

• How to use C++ AMP from C# using WinRT

Have fun!