ACADEMIA

The Portland Group announced plans for a version of the 64-bit PGI Fortran compiler fully integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. The PGI Fortran compiler delivers world-class performance and automatic parallelization capability for dual-core 64-bit processors from both Intel and AMD. PGI's Fortran compiler integrated with Visual Studio 2005 features parallel-capable debugging and performance profiling tools for the de facto standard OpenMP parallel programming model on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 and Windows XP Professional x64 Editions. The PGI Fortran compiler and development tools are used widely in high- performance computing (HPC), the field of technical computing engaged in the modeling and simulation of complex processes, such as ocean modeling, weather forecasting, geophysical processing, aerodynamic simulation, structural analysis, automotive crash testing, computational chemistry, and related fields. The PGI Fortran 95 compiler and tools provide a uniformly optimized set of industry-tested development tools for the processors powering computing-intensive hardware platforms and are referenced regularly as the industry standard for performance and reliability. "The PGI Fortran parallel compiler and tools will bring cross-platform optimization and dual-core capabilities to a much wider market as the migration to 64-bit computing on Windows intensifies," said Douglas Miles, director, The Portland Group. "PGI compilers generate fully optimized code for both Intel and AMD x64 processors, and will now offer the proven ease-of- use and productivity inherent in Visual Studio 2005. The PGI solution will include a copy of Visual Studio 2005 bundled with every copy of the compiler, so it will be easy to use out-of-the-box. It also includes a custom integrated debug engine with full support for Fortran and debugging of auto- parallelized and OpenMP parallel programs for dual-core processors." "We are pleased to see the 64-bit PGI Fortran compiler added to the list of solutions available with Visual Studio 2005," said Nick Abbott, group manager in the .NET Developer Product Management Group at Microsoft Corp. "As the rollout of the Microsoft Compute Cluster Edition brings clustering into the mainstream, complementary products like the PGI Fortran compiler are expected to play a key role in the rapid adoption of Windows-based clusters in the science and engineering market." PGI Fortran integrated with Visual Studio 2005 will be demonstrated next week at the Supercomputing 2005 conference in Seattle, Washington, and will be available in the first quarter of 2006 as a technology preview edition. General availability is scheduled for Spring, 2006.