Intel Core 2 Duo and Xeon dual core fortran support

Accelerated Computing HPC Compilers Legacy PGI Compilers
1

I am shopping for a workstation to run the NCAR/MM5. I am a bit unsure on the level of support for the Intel Core 2 Duo and Xeon dual core. What is the optimisation level for the fortran compiler for the above architectures? I know that the AMD Dual Core and Opteron CPU perform very well with the PGI. Will I be getting similar results with an Intel CPU and especially the new Core 2 Duo?

Any thoughts, ideas will be appreciated

Maurice Politis

University of West Macedonia
Department of Engineering and Management of Energy Resources
Environmental Technology Laboratory

2

Hi Maurice,

We produce highly optimized code for both Intel and AMD processors. We even have a unqiue “unified binary” feature which creates a single binary optimized for both AMD64 and EM64T.

With the 6.2 release of the PGI compilers, we have added the new architecture flags “-tp core2-64” (64-bits) and “-tp core2” (32-bits) which adds specific support for the Intel Core 2 Duo systems. Earlier releases of the compliers will still work fine and produce binaries which have very good performance on a Core 2, but may not take full advantage of all new features this processor provides.

Thanks,
Mat

3

Speaking of the 6.2 release, when will it make its way to the download section?

4

Hi Chris,

As you know, it should have been out last week but some last minute issues popped up and caused a delay. Linux is ready but it’s the Windows version that’s caused hold-up. We’ve updated the Windows package to include Microsoft’s Open Tools 8 instead of requiring users to download the platform SDK, but we didn’t get OT8 until late and integration has taken longer than expected.

I think the higher ups have decided to get the Linux version out the door and not wait for Windows any longer. I’m hoping this will happen later today so check back when you get into work tommorrow. I’ll try an keep you posted.

Thanks,
Mat

5

Ah, I was really hoping to get the windows due to the -g bug in the fortran compiler and check out its compatibility with mingw/cygwin.

6

Note that MINGW is no longer part of the Win32 package since the new Win32 compilers are native. The good news is that debugging is now supported on Win32 as is C++.

  • Mat
7

Are the compilers still compatible in those environments (mingw/cygwin). i.e. are -L and -l still accepted. Will -lx look for libx.a?

8

Thanks Mat! So with the 6.2 release I should be fine with the Core 2 Duo family. This is great because I really want to keep using the PGI compiler for MM5.

Maurice Politis

University of West Macedonia
Department of Engineering and Management of Energy Resources
Environmental Technology Laboratory
Kozani, Greece

9

Maurice,

Your welcome. From what I’ve seen, the PGI compilers generate very good code for Core 2 Duo. However, we still have more to learn about this new processor, so expect further improvements in the future.


Chris,

Our web master has the Linux 6.2-2 package and is currently updating the web site. Also, it appears that all but one of the issues relating to the new Microsoft Tools package (and the reason for the delay) have been resolved. However, we need to put the compilers through our QA process. So barring any other major problems, we’re shooting for a Sept. 7th release.

Although the new Win32 compilers are very different “under the hood” than their predecessors, they work just the same. So “-L” and “-l” still select a library path and a specific library. The actual system libraries used have changed from MIGNW to Microsoft, but as a user, you shouldn’t notice this.

You might encounter some porting issues using the Microsoft header files and Fortran to C calling conventions. I’ll try an put together a FAQ with some of porting issues I’ve encounter and perhaps others can post their experiences.

Instead of the old antiquated CYGWIN we use to ship, we now included a more modern version. You can even install your own copy if you like. We include CYGWIN just as a convenient shell environment for those who are porting from Linux but have no dependency on it. You can just as easily compile from DOS or Portland Visual Fortran (PVF). However, CYGWIN GCC compiled objects or the CYGWIN system libraries may not be compatible.

Thanks for your support Chris! Your one of the few non-PGI employed users to post answers to these Forums, and I appreciate the help!

  • Mat