INDUSTRY

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Intel Corporation today introduced version 6.0 of the Intel(R) C++ Compilers and the Intel(R) Fortran Compilers, which have been upgraded with expanded operating system support and enhanced optimization features that will enable software applications to run at top speeds on the latest Intel processors. All of the Intel compilers now have enhanced optimization features, including Profile-Guided Optimization and Interprocedural Optimization to improve application performance. Specific to the Intel(R) Itanium(TM) processor, compiler features such as predication, branch prediction, software pipelining and floating point optimizations enable significant performance increase for compute-intensive applications. For Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 and Intel(R) Xeon(TM) processors, version 6.0 of the Intel Compilers supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2) and includes processor dispatch and automatic vectorization, which detects patterns of sequential data accessed by the same instruction and transforms code for Single-Instruction Multiple-Data (SIMD) execution. "Developers want tools that take advantage of all of the performance the platform can deliver," said Jon Khazam, director of Intel's software products division. "The new Intel compilers add support for architectural innovations in the Pentium 4, Intel Xeon and Itanium processors, thus helping developers deliver applications with the highest possible performance." Version 6.0 of the Intel Compilers are designed to interoperate with other leading tools to make them easier to use with popular development environments, such as Windows and Linux. The Intel C++ Compiler for Windows is source and object code compatible with Microsoft(A) Visual C++ 6.0, and substantially native-source and object code compatible with Visual C++ .NET. The compilers also provides plug-in capability to Visual Studio 6.0 and features a preview plug-in to Visual Studio .NET. The C++ compiler for Linux has support for the latest C++ ABI, GNU inline assembly for Pentium 4 and Intel Xeon processors, as well as strong compatibility with GNU C. The Intel Fortran Compilers provide source-code compatibility with Compaq(A) Visual Fortran and allow for mixed (C and Fortran) language development and debugging. Of special interest to developers in technical and scientific computing that want to simplify the development of threaded and multiprocessor applications is the Intel Compiler support of OpenMP(A) and the preview of a new Auto-Parallelization feature, which detects parallel loops capable of being executed in parallel and automatically generates multi-threaded code for these loops. Version 6.0 of the Intel Compilers are available today at www.intel.com/software/products and through selected software resellers. The Intel C++ and Intel Fortran Compilers for Windows each list for $399. The Intel C++ Compiler for Linux is also $399 and the Intel Fortran Compiler for Linux is $599. The purchase of any compiler product from Intel includes one year of support services and product upgrades. Intel offers additional software development products including the Intel(R) VTune(TM) Performance Analyzer and Intel(R) Performance Libraries, as well as online training through Intel Software College and a premier support program.