Compatibility of Intel Duo Processors, Linux, and Intel Fortran

[vlbond]

Dear Steve,

I appreciate, if you will give me more detail explanation about particular case of using Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz/667MHz/4MB) installed on thenotebook Dell XPS M1210. I also installed linux ubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso that is a 32-bit operating system. Concerning this subject, I have a few questions.

Which kind of your Fortran I should download and install here for best performance?

Is it possible to run 64-bit linux on this notebook?

Thanks!

[TimP]

64-bit linux is an excellent choice for Core 2 Duo, preferably with 2GB or more RAM. Ubuntu 64-bit is more difficult than Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, or SuSE, as it doesn't support the standard way of installing applications such as Intel compilers. Linux x86-64 supports both 32- and 64-bit compilers and applications.
You would want a 64-bit Fortran, with OpenMP option to take advantage of dual core. Several Fortran compilers meet those qualifications. In addition, ifort has an auto-parallel option for multiple cores.
There is a slight dilemma, as Intel compilers aren't fully compatible with the current gcc/g++/gfortran which supports OpenMP. OpenSuSE, for example, includes both the Intel compiler compatible gcc installation and the newer gcc/gfortran 4.2. Most of the linux distros provide only an older g++ which works with Intel compilers.

[vlbond]

Hi Tim18!

Thank you for reply. I probably should try to install a 64-bit UNIX on the notebook. I only concerned about 2 hardware. One of them is processor address bus, which is a 32-bit device. Another is PCI bus thathas 32-bit width. I think, processor address bus should not be a problem, because the notebook have only 2 GB DRAM. However, I am not convinced that PCI will not be a problem,for example, when FORTRAN program requires writing data on hard disk. Do you know anybody who run 64-bit UNIX onthe notebook?