Beyond expert-only parallel programming?

Abstract

My parallel-programming education began in earnest when I joined Sequent Computer Systems in late 1990. This education was both brief and effective: within a few short years, my co-workers and I were breaking new ground [MG92, MS93, MS98].1 Nor was I alone: Sequent habitually hired new-to-parallelism engineers and had them producing competent parallel code within a few months. Nevertheless, more than two decades later, parallel programming is perceived to be difficult to teach and learn. Is parallel programming an exception to the typical transitioning of technnology from impossible to expert-only to routine to unworthy of conscious thought?