DAMTP Computing News

SUMMARY: Newer versions (11.1) of the Intel Fortran and C++ compilers are now available for testing on the departmental Linux machines.

We have installed newer version 11.1.072 of the Intel Fortran and C++ compilers for Linux/x86 (ia32 and x86_64), for people to test. Apologies for the length of time that this update has been delayed while more testing was being done.

Unlike the previous installs of the intel compilers the native 64-bit version will be used by default on 64-bit machines although the 32-bit version is still available - previously you had to call e.g. ifort64 to invoke the 64-bit compiler).

Currently these are still not the default versions of the Intel compilers, but you can already call them as:

The Intel graphical debugger is new (well we didn't have it before) and seems to be using a fairly standard Eclipse setup.

All of these commands can also be suffixed by .32 to force the 32-bit version or (on 64-bit machines) .64 to ensure the 64-bit version is used. e.g. invoking ifort1101072.64 will work on a 64-bit machine but not exist on a 32-bit system.

e.g. on a 64-bit machine:

     $ ifort1101072 -logo
     Intel(R) Fortran Intel(R) 64 Compiler Professional for applications\
      running on Intel(R) 64, Version 11.1    Build 20100414 
     Copyright (C) 1985-2010 Intel Corporation.  All rights reserved.
     
     $ ifort1101072.64 -logo
     Intel(R) Fortran Intel(R) 64 Compiler Professional for applications\
      running on Intel(R) 64, Version 11.1    Build 20100414 
     Copyright (C) 1985-2010 Intel Corporation.  All rights reserved.
     
     $ ifort1101072.32 -logo
     Intel(R) Fortran Compiler Professional for applications running on\
      IA-32, Version 11.1    Build 20100414 
     Copyright (C) 1985-2010 Intel Corporation.  All rights reserved.

etc etc.

The compilers have been configured so that using the NAg Fortran Library should be trivial, ie linking by just adding -lnag_nag (or even -lnag_mkl) to compile/link lines.

This will pick the right implementation of the library (MK22 for IA32 or EM64T for intel compiler >= 10.1, ie fllux22dcl or fll6i22dcl as appropriate), and should have access to the right nag_interface_blocks .f90 and .mod files for checking the types of arguments etc.

There appears to be no version of the NAg Fortran-90 library compatible with this release of the Intel compilers - NAg tell us that they merged the old F77 and F90 libraries into the new Fortran Library but it appears that this is using F77 style names and calling conventions. The last release of the Fortran-90 library (MK4) is only available for Intel compilers up to version 9.1. See http://www.nag.co.uk/numeric/FL/FLdescription.asp and http://www.nag.co.uk/numeric/FN/FNdescription.asp for details of the available versions (it is tedious to work though the tables).

We have not yet rebuilt the local MPICH against the version 11 compilers. If anyone thinks we should (or should not) bother to do so please send a message to help@damtp.cam.ac.uk with your reasons.

Note that we only have 2 (two) floating licences for these compilers and for this release that also applies to the debugger, so leaving the debugger running may prevent other people from compiling their code. If this causes problems please let us know - we may have to buy more licences.

The update to the licinfo script mentioned in news item 1478 points at the licence server for this newer version of the Intel Compilers.

Unless major problems are discovered these will become the default versions of icc/ifort/idb in the next few weeks.

Complaints etc to jp107@damtp.cam.ac.uk for now.