ENGINEERING

At this week’s Supercomputing 2004 (SC2004) Conference, Absoft Corporation has announced the availability of several new tools for the award-winning and highly popular IBM XL Fortran Advanced Edition and IBM XL C/C++ Advanced Edition compilers for Apple’s Mac OS X. The new offerings include the Absoft Integrated Development Environment, the market-leading Fx2 Debugging Solution, VAST/Altivec for automatic Vectorization of code on G5-based systems for performance improvements using the Altivec processor, and the availability of the IMSL Fortran Numerical Library v5.0. The IBM XL Advanced Edition compilers for Mac OS X are high performance Fortran 95 and C/C++ compilers based on the mature compiler technology of IBM XL Fortran and IBM XL C/C++ for AIX. To further enhance the performance, versatility, and ease of use of the IBM compilers, several new tools are now available exclusively through Absoft. A new and improved version of Absoft’s Fx2™ industry-leading, multi-platform, debugging solution may be downloaded at no charge by existing IBM XL Fortran and XL C/C++ users. Fx2 is the only debugger available for OS X that provides full support for Fortran and C/C++, works with multiple compilers, and has a feature set superior to all gdb-derived debuggers. Fx2 is included with all copies of IBM XL Fortran, XL C/C++, Absoft Pro Fortran and Absoft Fortran95 for Linux. The Absoft IDE is a stand-alone suite of development tools designed to simplify the compile, run and debug code development process for software developers, saving time and money during the development process by increasing developer productivity. The Absoft IDE combines Fx2, the leading Fortran/C/C++ debugging solution, a programmer’s editor, support for compilers from multiple vendors (Absoft, IBM, gnu) and select third party plug-in tools (IMSL Libraries, VAST, graphics) with an intuitive graphical user interface. The Absoft IDE includes automatic file dependency information handling, makefile generation, project management for full Fortran95 / Fortran 77 / C & C++ projects, a fully-featured programmer's editor with syntax-highlighting, an integrated performance profiler and the MRWE application framework which can automatically create a native GUI for each compiled application (full source included). VAST/Altivec is a powerful code optimizer which automatically restructures code to take advantage of the single precision AltiVec vector processing unit specially built into the Mac G4/G5 processors. Developed by Crescent Bay Software and sold/supported by Absoft, VAST/Altivec can provide several-fold performance increases for many types of applications with very little work on the part of the user. A single copy of VAST will work with Absoft Pro Fortran for OS X and also with IBM XL Fortran Advanced Edition for Mac OS X. “VAST/AltiVec together with either Absoft Fortran or the XL compilers provides the ultimate in performance for those who want to get the most out of their G5 hardware.” said Bob Brode, Senior Product Manager at Crescent Bay Software, “The state-of-the-art technology in VAST/AltiVec reflects the Crescent Bay Software team’s long-term exclusive focus on vector and parallel optimization.” The IMSL™ Fortran Numerical Library is the gold standard mathematical and statistical code library for Fortran programmers developing high performance computing applications. IMSL v5.0 is the latest release which combines all of the algorithms from the IMSL family of Fortran library, IMSL F90 components, IMSL FORTRAN 77 Library, and the IMSL parallel processing features into a single package. Utilities are also included to simplify large-scale computing with the ScaLAPACK library. “Visual Numerics is committed to providing high-performance analytics to the Fortran community,” said Phil Fraher, COO of Visual Numerics. “By working with leading compiler vendors like IBM and Absoft, we ensure that our IMSL Fortran Library continues to be the solution of choice within the high-performance computing community” said Phil Fraher, COO of Visual Numerics. “Absoft is pleased to offer so many valuable options for customers using the incredibly popular IBM XL Compilers for OS X” said Wood Lotz, President of Absoft. “Absoft is committed to continue offering customers the most reliable and highest performing Fortran and C/C++ solutions available.” “Absoft leads the industry in price/performance solutions with fast, reliable compilers, flexible licensing policies, powerful debugging and development tools, and free technical support,” continued Lotz. “Absoft is the only company offering source compatible Fortran compilers for all of today’s leading computing platforms running Windows, OS X, and Linux. This compatibility is important for users such as universities and labs who work in multiple environments,” added Lotz. “Our powerful and unique combination of superior performance, reliability, legacy code support, compatibility, and technical support make Absoft products the most attractive solutions for customers looking to migrate existing applications from scalar, single processor platforms to high-performance computing solutions with multiple processors such as small, medium, or large clusters.” The IBM XL Advanced Edition compilers for Mac OS X are available to commercial customers starting at $999. Government licenses start at $599. Academic licenses start at $399. Special pricing is available for floating licenses, upgrades, and high volume purchases. For product and ordering information visit the product specific links below or contact Absoft at (248) 853-0050, or by emailing sales@absoft.com. Product and ordering information for IBM XL Fortran Advanced Edition are at: http://www.absoft.com/Products/Compilers/Fortran/Macintosh/XLF/xlf.html Product and ordering information for IBM XL C/C++ Advanced Edition are at: http://www.absoft.com/Products/Compilers/C_C++/XLC/XLC.html For more information or to order Fx2 see: http://www.absoft.com/Products/Debuggers/fx2/fx2_debugger.html For more information on Absoft’s IDE see: http://www.absoft.com/Products/Tools/ide.html For more information on VAST/Altivec see: http://www.absoft.com/Products/Libraries/vast.html For more information on the IMSL Fortran Numerical Library v5.0 see: http://www.absoft.com/Products/Libraries/imsl.html