Intel has announced that it will open-source its cross-platform 2.0 (TBB) template library, which is designed to make it easier for programmers to build applications which utilize multi-core processors. 

Most high-end computers (and even many mid-range) ship with multi-core processors, but many popular software packages aren't written to take advantage of the potential speed gains of two processors. 

While the short-term effect of [Intel's announcement][1] will mean little to the average consumer, in the long run the TBB code could enable developers to begin offering more application with multi-core support -- which means better performance for users.

Intel has previously contributed code to the Linux kernel and developed some drivers which are open source, but today's announcement is the first time Intel has open-sourced a private commercial offering. It is also Intel's largest open-source project.

With TBB Intel would clearly like to be the standard tool for writing multi-threaded code and the tool is already popular with C++ programmers so now that it's open source its appeal will likely spread within the open source community.

TBB 2.0 is processor, OS and compiler independent and will be offered under the GPL v2. 

Intel tells [Ars Technica][2] that the company is evaluating the GPL v3, but has yet to make a decision about formally adopting it.

There's a [new website][3] set up for the open-source portion of TBB 2.0, but Intel will also continue selling a commercial version which is identical, but includes support from Intel.

[1]: http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20070724fact.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20070724fact
[2]: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070724-intel-open-sources-multicore-programming-tool.html
[3]: http://osstbb.intel.com/