Absoft Corporation today announced Pro Fortran v10.2 which they state provides significant improvements for Fortran developers running Windows on the latest hardware systems. Improvements are focused in two areas: 1) increased application speed, and 2) new tools in the Pro Fortran IDE which simplify development and support of Fortran programs. The increase in application speed is primarily through Absoft's support for the SSE4 vector instructions available on the latest 64-bit x86-64 and 32-bit x86 processors from AMD such as AMD Quad-Core Opteron and AMD PhenomTM X4 and X3 processors and the latest x86-64 processors from Intel including the new i7 (Nehalem). AMD's SSE 4a and Intel's SSE 4.1 vector instructions are different and not all computers running Windows include the latest SSE4 compatible processors. To simplify development for customers, Absoft Pro Fortran v10.2 automatically determines processor type and optimizes for the proper SSE4 vector extensions when appropriate. Absoft states that internal tests have demonstrated SSE4 can increase speed up to 10% on both AMD and Intel processors - automatically, without code changes. The IDE included with Pro Fortran v10.2 has several new tools, which simplify code development and maintenance - one of the most interesting being Absoft's proprietary Fortran module savvy parallel make facility. Absoft's make automatically determines Fortran module dependencies, thereby eliminating the need to continually track and order compilation sequences by hand, as is required when using alternative compilers. Also, the new parallel make can substantially decrease build times for large projects by taking advantage of multi-core architectures and compiling two or more independent program units simultaneously. The Pro Fortran IDE also accepts 3rd party applications such as Microsoft C/C++ and IMSL numerical libraries as plug-ins. "Many of our customers have selected the new multi-core Vista machines as Fortran development platforms, because they are very fast and extremely affordable," said Wood Lotz president of Absoft. "Absoft has been a Microsoft technology partner for over 23 years, and our latest Pro Fortran v10.2 with auto-parallelization and SSE4 technology is a significant advancement for Windows customers. This new technology assures maximum application performance on the AMD and Intel based systems, plus exceptional ease-of-use. No other Fortran matches Pro Fortran v10.2's combination of performance and functionality and prices start at only $299," continued Lotz. Absoft's new Pro Fortran v10.2 is available immediately and compatible with Windows 2K through Vista and Windows HPC Server 2008. Prices start at $299. Complete product details are available at its Web site.