Parallelism the new / next big thing ??

Read an article which talks about how Parallel programming will become a central theme in the time to come. Due to the focus shift towards multi-core processors, there is a great need for parallel programmers and looks like only 1% of world-wide developer community has an idea on parallel programming. With news like these, I was excited to read about the launch of Parallel computing research centers at UIUC. MS and Intel backs this research center with $10 million in funding. All these events and facts makes it interesting to concentrate more on my current semester on Computer System Architecture where we have just started talking about multi-core processors.