Intel Visual Fortran Professional Edition - Pricing and Upgrades

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Back in December, when Intel Visual Fortran was announced, a Professional Edition that adds the IMSL* 5.0 libraries from Visual Numerics was described. Pricing was given as $1399 for a new purchase, or $849 if upgrading from CVF Pro (the upgrade was said to be a limited time offer.)

Since then, we have had users ask about upgrades from Intel Visual Fortran Standard Edition. It took a while to get the details straightened out, but we now have upgrades and pricing set. Resellers are just now learning about these, so please be patient with them if they haven't seen the changes yet.

Intel Visual Fortran Professional Edition has all the features of the Standard Edition and adds the IMSL 5.0 libraries from Visual Numerics. (CVF had IMSL 4.0). New features and enhancements in IMSL compared to CVF Pro include:

• Many new algorithms, including new statistical time series routines
• New interfaces available with optional arguments, allowing for greater control and simplified development (source compatible with existing programs)
• Dynamic Link Library now provided
• OpenMP and SMP support
• Support of Intel Math Kernel Library (purchased separately)for improved performance
• Includes no-charge run-time license for deployment on systems with no more than 4 CPUs
• Full technical support from Intel (in CVF, technical support was not included)

Pricing:

• New purchase: $1199 "sale" price through 6/30/2004, $1399 thereafter
• New academic purchase: $649
• Upgrade from CVF Professional Edition, $849 (available from resellers only, qualification done by resellers). This upgrade offer expires 6/30/2004.
• Upgrade from Intel Visual Fortran Standard: $700 through 6/30/2004, $900 thereafter (New option)

Each purchase includes one year of support and product updates at no additional charge. Support can be renewed for another yearthereafter for $649.

Academic upgrade pricingand floating licenses forthe Professional Editionare not available. Please contact Visual Numerics directly (Matt Prentice, mprentice@vni.com) to ask about other IMSL licensing options, including large-system run-time licenses.

Availability is expected to be on or about March 31, 2004. Initial availability will be download only, with CD product to follow a few weeks later.

As you will have noted, we have temporarily lowered the "new purchase" price for the Professional Edition. If you have already placed an order with a reseller at the higher price, please contact them to have the price adjusted.

Lastly, please note that the special $200 upgrade from CVF to Intel Visual Fortran Standard Edition expires 3/31/2004.

Please let me know if you have questions about any of the above.

Message Edited by sblionel on 03-10-2004 09:48 AM

[g_f_thomas]

VNI's pricing is an outrage.

Ciao,
Gerry T.

[dhalpern]

Steve, last December you wrote the following (see below ), partly as a response to a message that I sent concerning academic pricing for the professional version of intel fortran. According to the latest message, you seem to imply that there is now no price break for academic users. That is the the $560 or $605 price that you quoted below last Decembernow doesn't apply. Could you please clarify this because there seems to be conflicting information ? Ilook forward to your answer. Yours sincerely, David Halpern, Associate Professor, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 Phone: (205)348-1977 Posted: 12-10-200308:43 ID#: 7054 (Viewed 1076 times) I will pass on to the marketing people (who negotiated with VNI) the comments about the lack of a Std-Pro upgrade. No promises - it's not really up to us. There is no additional discount on the CVF-IVF upgrade for academic users - the price is already so low. Academic pricing: Standard: $245 ($200 for download) Student: $30 (download only, limited support) Pro: $605 ($560 for download) There is no academic CVF-IVF Pro upgrade. Floating licenses are also available. Steve

[durisinm]

This is good news to me. I paid $200 for a discounted upgrade from CVF Pro with IMSL to IF7 a year ago. Now for an additional $700 I can upgrade from the current IVF8 Standard to IVF8 Pro with IMSL. That's a total of $900, $49 more than if I had waited until now to upgrade directly from CVF Pro to IVF8 Pro for $849, but it's close enough and definitely better than paying an additional $1199 for a new copy of IVF8 Pro.

I agree withGerry T. that VNI is charging a lot for the privilege of using IMSL 5. Perhaps Intel should consider partnering with NAG, which offers what I think is a library with comparable functionality, to produce an alternate IVF Pro product that might cost less. It could sell both Pro versionsand let customers choose which one they want. Just an idea.

Mike D.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Note that when you upgrade to Pro, you get your license extended by a year, so you've had some use of the standard edition for the money. We needed to set the price at $700 in order to plug a hole in the pricing model. If we had set it at $649, then someone could buy the standard kit for $499 and the upgrade for $649 and pay $1148 for the Pro, vs. (originally) $1399, or (now) $1199 for the Pro kit directly.

It could have been a lot worse, trust me. Also, note that these are suggested prices and resellers have the flexibility to sell for less. The upgrades are available through resellers ONLY, not directly from Intel.

As for NAG, their prices are about the same, really. The major reason we offer the package with IMSL is that so many CVF customers wanted it.It's an unusual arrangement for Intel and has been more complicated than I envisioned. We're not ruling out a package with NAG for the future, though.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Mike,

My apologies - I meant that there was no academic upgrade pricing. You are correct - there is an academic price of $649 for new purchases.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

My apologies - I meant that there was no academic upgrade price. There is an academic purchase price of $649. Thanks for catching this - I'll make the edit.

[g_f_thomas]

Over the life span of DVF/CVF, IMSL didn't seem to change in terms of functionality. IMSL 5 does so, a price hike is reasonable and while I believe you when you say that it could have been worse it could also have been better if the NAG library were available as a competitive alternative. Personally I'd prefer NAG over IMSL but their current insistance on run-time licensing is not on. It's amusing that the NAG library will likely be issued as an IVF-generated DLL as it was with DVF/CVF.

Is it correct to assume that the annual subscription to IVF Pro will include IMSL upgrades?

Ciao,
Gerry T.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Note that VNI normally charges for a run-time license for IMSLtoo, but we arranged that that would not be needed for most users.

Yes, support service for Pro includes any updates to IMSL that we receive.

[g_f_thomas]

"Note that VNI normally charges for a run-time license for IMSL too, but we arranged that that would not be needed for most users."

Duly noted. I'm sure this is good for many IVF customers. Now if only you could persuade the NAG folks what a great opportunity is to be had!

Ciao,
Gerry T.

[durisinm]

I contacted Programmer's Paradise to buy the IVF8 Standard to IVF8 Pro upgrade. I was told that they won't have it available for sale until March 31. My year of Intel support for IVF8 Standard runs out shortly before that. Should I just not pay the upcoming support fee for the IVF8 Standard and get another year's worth when my purchase of the upgrade goes through? There would be a small gap where I wouldn't be covered, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

By the way, Intel hasn't contacted me yet about paying the support fee for another year. How is that normally done?

Mike D.

[christian_staudinger]

Hi Mike,

Intel's renewals don't so much depend on the product release dates as on when your maintenance expires based on the original purchase date. If you renew today, your maintenance will be extended for the next 12 months from the date your maintenance expired. So, if your maintenance expires on 3/20/2004 and you purchase a renewal, it will be extended until 3/20/2005. You would continue to receive upgrades at no additional charge until 3/20/2005. See additional information at http://www.intel.com/software/products/support/sup_faq.htm.

Let us know if didn't answer your question.

Take care,

Christian

Intel Corp.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Mike raises an interesting issue I don't know the answer for - how is qualification for the Std-Pro upgrade handled? I'll find out and report back here.

[durisinm]

Christian,

I'm not sure I framed the question clearly. I understand that if I purchase a support renewal today my support will be extended for another year. If I did that and then purchased the IVF8 Standard to IVF8 Pro upgrade what would happen?

Mike D.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Mike,

You should not renew your support for the Standard Edition at this point if you intend to upgrade to Professional. You could, but it would be a waste of money. The Professional Upgrade is a complete replacement for your Standard Edition, which you would then discontinue using.

You will need the serial number from your Intel Fortran Standard kit to qualify for the upgrade.

[Zhanghong_T_]

Hello Steve,

I wish to know whether Intel Visual Fortran Professional Edition is available in China and how much it costs.

Thanks

Tang Zhanghong

[christian_staudinger]

Hi Tang,

A list of local Chinese resellers can be found at http://www.intel.com/software/products/reseller.htm#China. I recommend to contact them for pricing information. If you need additional contact information, please write to Fortran@Intel.com.

Take care,

Christian

Intel Corp

[nijhuis]

I want to order the coming Intel Visual Fortran Professional Edition but I am not sure about the requirement of the .NET environment in relation to C++.

I now have the CVF Professional Edition 6.6C and Visual C++ 6.0.

What do I need for the upgrade concerning .NET and Visual C++ ?

I thought I need Visual C++ 6.0 Professional Edition, but I only see at the Microsoft pages : Visual Studio.NET 2003 Professional. Is this the one and is Visual C++ included in it?

Guus

[Steven_L_Intel1]

You need Visual Studio.NET. Visual Studio.NET 2003 Professional is fine and yes it includes Visual C++. The least expensive choice is Visual C++.NET 2003 Standard Edition, but I would recommend that only if Visual C++ is not important to you, as it does not provide an optimizing C++ compiler.

Any Microsoft product which includes Visual C++.NET works with Intel Visual Fortran.

[halfant]

What exactly are the IMSL 5.0 licensing restrictions? Is it a perpetual license, or must it be renewed annually -- i.e., if my IMSL license expires, can I continue using the library and distributing apps built with it?

Hopefully, an expired license only means I'm cut off from updates -- but if it's worse than that, I'd like to know. In ascending degrees of paranoia, here are possible restrictions with an expired license:

(1) Cannot re-install IMSL 5.0 after upgrading machines.

(2) Cannot continue to use IMSL 5.0 on original machine.

(3) Cannot continue distributing apps built while license was valid.

Please reassure or commiserate :-)

[Steven_L_Intel1]

You're simply cut off from updates. You're allowed to use the software you have indefinitely.