Thalweg is a cross-platform development API and run-time environment for data-parallel algorithm libraries. Once code is developed to the Thalweg API, it can be compiled and run on any system, and at run time the optimal implementation is used based on the hardware and optimized version of the algorithms available. Further/future hardware optimizations can be done in isolation by programmers without the need for understanding of the complex science involved, so long as they meet the algorithms API and self-tests.