At first, GPUs could be used for a very narrow range of tasks (try to guess what), but they looked very attractive, and software developers decided to use their power for allocating a part of computing to graphics accelerators. Since GPU cannot be used in the same way as CPU, this required new tools that did not take long to appear. This is how originated CUDA, OpenCL and DirectCompute. The new wave was named ‘GPGPU’ (General-purpose graphics processing units) to designate the technique of using GPU for general purpose computing. As a result, people began to use a number of completely different microprocessors to solve some very common tasks. This gave rise to the term “heterogeneous parallelism”, which is actually the topic of our today’s discussion.

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Node.js is really cool, but the abundance of powerful frameworks that simplify the development of web applications for other programming languages was a significant deterrent to the popularity of the use of JavaScript on servers. Many people needed a simple tool, one like your favorite RoR, Yii or ASP .NET MVC. The community of JavaScript aficionados worked hard on correcting this unfortunate situation, and several interesting solutions emerged as a result. Each of them has their own arsenal of killer-features, but in all that diversity I was attracted by an ambitious project hidden under modest title Sails.js.

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Key to start

First goes the list of the components I used:

1. Debug board STM32F3DISCOVERY.
2. KS0108 controller based screen (in my case, it is Russian MT-12864A).
3. WizFi220 Wi-Fi module.

Firmware may be developed at least in two IDEs: Keil Embedded Development Tools for ARM and IAR Embedded Workbench. I use the first one, but if you are interested in the other one, you will need IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM due to peculiarities of IAR.

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Currently, the backends focused on certain needs of application developers are actively “built” upon “low-level” cloud systems (bare virtual servers and virtual file storages). The so-called backend as a service (BaaS) are in really good demand with mobile software developers, due to which now the differences between BaaS and Mobile BaaS (MBaaS) are almost blurred out. MBaaS-services are very popular with online-games developers and start-up projects, because they help spare an ocean of resources and time for development and maintenance of server infrastructure. Today it’s possible both to connect client side to cloud storage, user maintenance service, social services, etc., and to bring the working prototype to operation within several hours and free of charge.

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Any software development project is always associated with the automation of related routine tasks. Initially, IDE and a pair of manual operations will be enough for you. Then, the number of body movements begins to grow: you need to perform multiple sets of tests, embed various certificates, execute scripts in the database, generate documentation on the code, and so on. You also need to perform these and other operations on the Continuous Integration server. In addition, you may need to deploy applications on production servers (if we’re talking about a client-server solution). To automate such tasks, programmers sometimes create sets of batch or shell scripts, but more often, the team of developers comes to some consolidated decision.

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Python itself is, of course, a programming language. But many people mistakenly believe that Python is the very thing that comes with most of the *nix systems and can be launched by typing “python” in the console. That is, the interpreter (a specific version thereof) is associated with the language as a whole. Just like those guys who write on Delphi. But what does it really mean?

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JavaScript has steadily been among the most popular programming languages in the recent years. Numerous frameworks and development for popular platforms have secured the success and erased the memories of the nasty clichés of the past. The language grows, develops and becomes more logical, which certainly pleases many thousands of its fans.

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