Deprecation of Intel^® Fortran Compiler Classic for macOS*

April 2023
by Ron Green

You may have read or heard that starting with Intel^® oneAPI version 2023.1 update release, Intel announced deprecation of support for the Intel^® oneAPI HPC Toolkit for macOS on x86.  Intel^® Fortran Compiler Classic for macOS* is part of that toolkit and therefore is also deprecated.  Let me quickly answer one urgent question:

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT APPLIES to macOS versions ONLY.  This does not apply to our Windows* or Linux* compiler packages and products.  We have NOT announced deprecation and removal for the Intel^® Fortran Compiler Classic for Linux* or Windows*.

The deprecation announcement was published in Intel® Fortran Compiler for oneAPI Release Notes.  Also, there are changes to support for all other Intel® oneAPI development tools and toolkits targeting macOS*.  Read the Releases Notes for the Intel® oneAPI HPC Toolkit, and the Release Notes for the Intel® oneAPI Base Toolkit for all the details for these other Intel developer tools.

Now that we have clarity on what OS is involved, allow me to answer some reasonable follow-on questions that you may have.

What is “Deprecation”?

We use the term “deprecation” in a similar way to Language Standards definition:  The act or process of marking the feature or products as obsolete, to discourage its use and warn users that it *may* be phased out in the future, but not removing the capability immediately, so as to allow for continued compatibility for a period of time.

This is a forewarning: ifort for macOS is obsolete, use is discouraged, and it will be phased out starting with removal from our future product release of oneAPI 2024.0.

When will ifort for macOS be removed?

There are two answers to this:

1. When will packages for Intel® Fortran Compiler Classic, ifort, for macOS no longer appear in releases and new packages? 
   • Starting with the Intel® oneAPI 2024.0, Intel will no longer package or release ifort for macOS. 
2. Can I still find a download for the oneAPI 2023 versions of ifort for macOS?
   • Even though new packages will no longer be available, we will continue to provide the 2023 and older packages to customers with Priority Support on the Intel Registration Center.  We will follow our policy for Older Version Product Support.
   • For users without Priority Support, we may leave the Component Download for ifort for macOS, the last update version for 2023, on our Components Downloads page for some period of time.  Keep in mind we will eventually remove this download as well.
     
     

What about the future of ifort for Linux* and Windows*?

AT THIS TIME (the April 2023 Intel® oneAPI 2023.1 release), the Deprecation and Removal Announcement for the Intel^® Fortran Compiler Classic, ifort, applies to the Intel^® Fortran Compiler Classic for macOS* only.

We have yet to determine a date to announce deprecation and removal of ifort for Linux and Windows. Regarding ifort for Linux and Windows, we are carefully watching the progress of ifx in performance and features in comparison with ifort.  When we believe ifx has matured sufficiently and is a good replacement for ifort for the majority of our users, we will make that announcement.  Again, we have no set date for this announcement.  But that announcement will come.  For this reason, your long-term planning should include a transition to our new Intel^® Fortran Compiler, known as ifx.  We recommend developers targeting calendar year 2024 software releases to begin testing with ifx in 2023.  Report any issues that you may find.  2024 is the year we anticipate asking users to migrate to ifx.

Will ifort for macOS get updates and fixes in 2024?

None are planned for ifort for macOS.  We cover our support policy on our Supported and Unsupported Products page.  I have pulled out and highlighted key wording in this policy: “Only safety and critical bugs may be back fixed in the latest updates of the previous release versions listed below. “

This means that ifort for macOS development will effectively freeze with the last 2023 Update release, barring any critical security patches or critical bugs.  And in those cases, only those specific fixes may go into a subsequent fix release. That is to say, only very targeted and specific fixes over the last and final release update of ifort for macOS. Put another way, if any releases occur after the last version 2023 update release, the changes will be restricted to specific fixes only.  No new features, capabilities, or hardware support will be added to any releases after the final 2023 update release. 

In 2024, ifort for Linux and Windows will get new features, general bug fixes, and potentially support for future architectures.  ifort for Linux and Windows will continue to get bug and security fixes and new features until these compilers are also deprecated and support removed.  

Will ifort support future macOS versions?

We will not update ifort to officially support any version of macOS for Mac* computers with Intel Processors after macOS 13.  In our current plans, macOS 13 is our last supported version for our ifort compiler. 

Will Intel provide the Intel^® Fortran Compiler for macOS?

No.  We have never provided our new LLVM-based Intel® Fortran Compiler, also known as “ifx”, for macOS for Mac* computers with Intel^® Processors.  We have no current plans to do so.

Will Intel provide the Intel^® Fortran Compiler for macOS for Mac* computers with Apple silicon?

We have no current plans to support non-Intel (or non-Intel-compatible) processors with our compilers.  In addition, we do not support our compilers running under emulators.

Getting this release

The latest update of the oneAPI toolkits and components was posted in the first week of April 2023.  The version of the Intel^® oneAPI HPC Toolkit is 2023.1.  The Intel^® Fortran Compiler Classic for macOS is provided as a separate download from our Single Component Downloads and Runtime Versions page, and you can read about how to get just ifort for macOS. 

Confused about versions of compiler versus versions of oneAPI? Read all about it in my forum post on version confusion.

You can also download the oneAPI HPC Toolkit which contains our Fortran compiler.  If you are trying ifx for the first time on Linux or Windows and you are an ifort user, make sure to read our Porting Guide for Intel^® Fortran Compiler.

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Ron Green #IAmIntel

Ron Green is the customer advocate for the Intel Fortran development team and the larger Intel Compilers team and is moderator of the Intel Fortran Community Forum.  He has extensive experience as a Fortran developer and consultant in HPC for the past 30+ years and has been with Intel’s compiler team for 15+ years.  His technical interest area is in parallel application development with a focus on Fortran programming.