Intel adds parallel programming features to compilers
November 11, 2008 —
Intel has updated three software development tools aimed at high-performance computing software developers, ahead of the introduction of its Core i7 processors.
Today the company released C++ Compiler 11.0, Intel Fortran Compiler 11.0 and Intel Cluster Toolkit 3.2. The compilers enable parallel programming for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating environments.
The tools have special instructions that optimize code for Intel’s Core i7 processors, the soon-to-be-released successor of the Intel Core 2 product family.
Both compilers implement OpenMP (Open Multi-Processing) 3.0, an API for multi-platform, shared-memory parallel programming. Also included are Intel Threading Building Blocks 2.1 and a collection of math and multimedia libraries. Prior to this release, the compilers did not offer task-based parallelism, said James Reinders, director of Intel software development products.
Intel will continue to look for standards such as OpenMP in parallel programming instead of trying to invent new things, he added.
The compilers also include a static analysis tool called “parallel lint,” which identifies where coding mistakes may hamper effective parallelism, Reinders noted. “[Intel has taken] a strong evolution to supporting multicore in logical ways and [to making] programmers more effective.”
“During the last few years, Intel has really taken the lead in the multicore, parallel-processing dev tools market with their early embrace of OpenMP; the development of Intel Threading Building Blocks and its release to open source; the purchase of several threading tools; and support for technologies such as auto-vectorization in its compilers,” said Andrew Binstock, principal analyst at Pacific Data Works and an SD Times columnist. “Version 11 of the compiler continues this trend by supporting expanded multicore parallel processing and providing new support for clustering. It's clear that Intel sees its [development] tools as strategic and with this release, they are putting the rest of the market into serious catch-up mode.”
Aside from parallelism, the 11.0 series of compilers broadened programming language support: The C++ compiler implements C++0x draft standard features, while the FORTRAN compiler has Fortran 2003 features. Additionally, Intel Threading Building Blocks for C++ now performs Lambda functions, Reinders added.
Cluster Toolkit Compiler Edition 3.2 now permits programmers to analyze and debug programs that are written in Message Passing Interface. Intel MPI Library 3.2, which is included in the toolkit, is device independent. “Interconnects don’t matter; you do not need to recompile programs for each interconnect,” said Reinders.
The toolkit also bundles both compilers, as well as Intel’s math libraries and tools for application deployment, testing and performance. It is available for Linux and Windows only, and Intel has no plans to port it to the Mac operating environment due to a lack of demand, he said.
Related Search Term(s): clustering, compilers, multicore, Intel
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