Threading Compilers
Intel's new HT compiler tools run the gamut of programming applications, Intel says. Version 7.0 of Intel C++ and Intel Fortran compilers for Windows and Linux can improve the performance of applications for Intel Itanium 2, Intel Xeon, and Intel Pentium 4 processor-based systems up to 40% compared to compilers currently available from other vendors, Intel claims. Specific to HT, the Version 7.0 Intel compilers include an auto-parallelization option that automatically looks in applications for opportunities to create multiple execution threads and enhancements to OpenMP, an open standard that enables the use of high-level directives to simplify the creation and management of multi-threaded application software.
The CERN Likes The Compiler
A scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, the birthplace of the Web (see CERN - Public home ), says he has ported 800,000 lines of C++ and 90,000 lines of C source code to the Intel compiler in one afternoon, a task he says previously took a week. "Due to the good GNU GCC compatibility of Intel's compilers we did not have many problems," said Fons Rademakers, senior scientist at CERN. "Although being a quite large framework, [our application] runs on a 32 MByte Ipaq handheld as well as the largest Itanium-based systems." His program, called ROOT, represents an LDA (large data analysis need) application:
Using Programs That Help You To Help Yourself To HT
In summary, do not expect HT to change your life that much unless you use a computationally intensive program such as a video editing or a high-end game designed to really take advantage of HT benefits, almost all of which are not yet commercially available. The applications available today that take advantage of HT were inadvertently written for the end user. That is because software such as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows Media Decoder offered multithreading for debugging purposes prior to their commercial launch. But with the availability of Intel's new compilers, programmers will soon make the most of HT's benefits for desktop applications as well as networking applications running on Xeon-based servers. In short, a PC with a multi-threaded suite of programs and an HT-capable Pentium 4 will eventually enable you to do video editing and listen to a radio station while periodically looking at NBA basketball scores on the Web at noticeably improved speeds and buffering capabilities. Noticeable benefits while running a spreadsheet and surfing the web, however, will probably remain nil with HT. So, as programmers sink their teeth into Intel's new compilers, the best HT software applications may yet be to come.
