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Intel Releases V6.0 Compiler Suite

Posted by timothy on from the smooshing-the-bits-around dept.

Yokaze writes: "Intels C++ and Fortran compilers are now available for Windows and Linux. The compiler for Linux provides higher compatibility with the GNU C-compiler including compability to the upcoming GCC-3.1 C++-ABI (binary compability) and support for several GNUisms in the syntax (PDF). To quote Intel: 'The 6.0 release of the Intel C++ compiler has improved support for the GNU C language extensions and is now able to build the Linux kernel with minor work arounds for both the IA-32 and Itanium architectures.' Little reminder: Running such a kernel is, of course, not supported by the kernel developers. Evaluation copies are available for download, but requires previous registration."

7 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. I hope they got it right this time. by Utopia · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Intel compiler has been known to ignore possible pointer-aliasing (variable accessed directly and also accessed via a pointer).
    This is OK with Fortran or in Fortran converted to C because Fortran doesn't have aliasing.
    This serious bug results in a lot of incorrect code.
    It is prudent that you double check the results from the Intel compiler.

    1. Re:I hope they got it right this time. by tjwhaynes · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Intel compiler has been known to ignore possible pointer-aliasing (variable accessed directly and also accessed via a pointer).

      Its not the only compiler that has problems with pointer aliasing. Optimizing aliased pointers will give you trouble on lots of platforms - careful reading of the ANSI standard says quite a lot about valid C coding and avoiding aliasing situations.

      Cheers,

      Toby Haynes

      --
      Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
  2. Re:Performance? by spencerogden · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think last time the Intel compiler was discussed it offered significant performance benefits ( read more than 10% ) on both Intel and AMD chips.

    --

    Spencer Ogden

  3. Re:Performance? by Lars+T. · · Score: 3, Informative

    Again a word of warning: the Intel compilers can yield incorrect programs, if the more agressive optimizations (inter procedural optimization / -ipo) are used. At least this was the case for Version 5.5 (article in German).

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  4. Re:Performance? by tjwhaynes · · Score: 4, Informative

    So that begs the question: apart from issues of reliability, stability, do the Intel compilers make a Linux system perform better or worse than one built with gcc?

    The correct answer to that question is: It depends

    I've made use of the new Intel compiler on some Linux projects. Initial results showed that it had about the same performance as gcc. But at this point we know a lot about the gcc compiler tuning and not a lot about the characteristics of the Intel compiler, so only time will tell how much performance can be (safetly) wrung out of the Intel compiler.

    Cheers,

    Toby Haynes

    --
    Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
  5. Re:This is nice, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I can't speak for Intel's C compiler, but moving to Intel's Fortran compiler on an Athlon Linux box bought my research group a 35% decrease in runtimes (for a simulation code that relies heavily on matrix factorization). We experimented a little with the compiler switches, but nothing heroic.

  6. Re:BoundsChecker and Purify verus GPL? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can link proprietary code with GPL all day long, just don't distribute any of it.