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Recommended hardware configuration for CVF 6.6

emreka82
Beginner
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Hello,

Years ago my thesis supervisor has bought this program (CVF 6.6b) and now he wants me to continue their project as my doctoral project. I am familiar with programming but I haven't used Compaq Visual Fortran before...Anyway, I get used to work with it an since it does not compile in Windows 7 I am working on Windows XP in Virtual PC but it is very slow to run and compile. Now I want to buy a new computer and that is what I am asking...What must be the most important part of the configuration... RAM ? processor ? etc... Can you give me the best configuration that I have to get ? By the way, I am also using TecPlot for post processing, so these two programs must work simultaneously for 3D graphics. Thanks for your attention.

Emre Kara
Mechanical Engineer, MSc
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21 Replies
Andrew_Smith
New Contributor III
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Is your application CPU bound, memory bound, disk IO bound or network bound?

Look at all the demands when deciding what you need. Also purchase IVF and that alone will speed it up, although not much on an old PC.
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Andrew_Smith
New Contributor III
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You also mentioned graphics so graphics processing capability is another consideration
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Steven_L_Intel1
Employee
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If you will continue to use CVF, then you can't use Windows 7. Any PC you buy today will be otherwise adequate for running CVF. I would recommend, if you are buying a new computer, to also buy Intel Visual Fortran that will work with your CVF project. Then you can use Windows 7.
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netphilou31
New Contributor II
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Hi all,

I am sorry to contradict you steve, but I am using CVF 6.6C3 and it works fine on Windows 7. I am using also IVF 11 and 12 and of course IVF+VS2005 is more comfortable to use than CVF6 but for some specific applications I am still using CVF (mainly for FPE handling in-house features).

Phil.
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bmchenry
New Contributor II
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Phil,

So how do you configure it to work in Win7?? Think that was thequestion.
I don't use CVF anymore but i was wondering Phil if you use it with the Virtual PC option and run a virtualXP Machine? I expectthat may be a workaround.
I've used that for a number of XP program that don't run in Win 7 issues.
Find the Virtual PC to work great.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/

brian
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Steven_L_Intel1
Employee
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I believe CVF works in 32-bit Win7 but not 64-bit Win7.
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emreka82
Beginner
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Firstly, thank for your replies. have some comments and questions as follows:

@ Andrew Smith: I am using CPU bound, i.e. it uses a lot of calculations but also I/O bound because it uses big files to create data from (for example a geometry file to create grids on it). I am using only 2D now but it will grow because of the additon of 3D approach. I don't know whether my application must be Memory bound or cache bound, I am confused with these terms.

@ Steve Lionel: I am not looking for the adequate computer, I am trying to buy the best and enough configuration for CVF. I am planning to use CVF because when I use the trial version of IVF 11.1 in the light of your article ( http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/migrating-from-compaq-visual-fortran/) , I ger lots of errors and then I say "Well, it will cost me long time to solve these problems and now I am using CVF 6.6 very efficiently" so I stop trying to use IVF.

@netphilou31: How do you work in Win7 ? Virtual PC or 32 bit win 7? If the second choice, I have a few questions...


@ Steve Lionel: Does this mean that I cannot use windows xp 64bit ? So, which one has more performance for CVF and tecplot, Virtual PC's Windows xp in win7 (32 bit or 64 bit) or simply the winxp 32 bit ? I will use only these programs in my new computer.

Thanks.

Emre





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anthonyrichards
New Contributor III
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You will gain most by migrating your CVF projects to IVF.

I urge you to post details of what your '..lots of errors' are and the excellent Intel people here will be able to advise you how to resolve the problems causing them and get you up and running again so that you can them start taking advantage of multiprocessors (vectorization, parallel processing) and 64- bit addressing for memory-hungry programs.
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anthonyrichards
New Contributor III
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(duplicate post deleted..finger problems)
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emreka82
Beginner
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I have used the IVF but now it is not intalled in my computer. At the weekend I will surely try again, and then I will write the errrors. Thanks for the advice. Which IVF edition should I use ? I have an official Win7 Home Premium edition 64-bit. CORE 5-460M 2.53GHZ 3MB; 1 GB ATI MOBLTY RADEON HD 5470; 4096 MB (2*2048) 1333 MHZ DDR3 DUAL CHANNEL. But this is my personal laptop, I will not use it for my works, I will use it at weekend just for checking.
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tropfen
New Contributor I
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Hello,

i have a computer with
Win7 64 bit
12GByte RAM
CORE i5-750 CPU

but using CVF 6.6 in Win xp mode, compiling takes still ages.

I do not think that a new computer will help much.

Frank
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anthonyrichards
New Contributor III
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What is 'ages'? Has the compile time got longer and longer for no apparent reason?

In the past, when CVF 6.6 users have found very long compile times for no obvious reason, deleting the .NCB and .OPT files and starting afresh has frequently worked wonders for some.

Also, try and have source files available locally and not on network drives, and certainly not on encypted laptop drives.
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tropfen
New Contributor I
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Hello,

on my 'old' laptop with Intel core duo and win xp a compilation takes approx 15 seconds.

with my new desktop (i5-750, win 7 using the xp mode) between 5 to 10 minutes

For the xp mode virtuell pc i have reserved 2GByte RAM

i do like my old CVF because there is still a resonable Array viewer.

Frank
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Steven_L_Intel1
Employee
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I have no idea if CVF will run in Windows XP 64-bit. It was never tested on that. I see no benefit in running XP 64-bit for use with CVF.

If you will be using CVF, I suggest Windows 7 32-bit.
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netphilou31
New Contributor II
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Brian,

I don't use any kind of Virtual PC, but as Steve said I am running Window 7 32-bit edition; I don't know if this makes the difference.
The only problem I get when trying to compile for the first time was a system message telling me that "vcspawn.exe"(I ma not sure of the name) was not compatible with this version of windows but after dismissing and ignoring the messages the compilation worked.

Phil.
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emreka82
Beginner
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@netphilou31

How can you use Win7 32-bit ? When I open my workspace or project file with DFDEV.EXE, appcrash error occurs. A simple f90 file cannot be compiled because of this error. Is it because I am using CVF 6.6.0 ? If this is the problem then how can I upgrade the version ? If you have any additional suggestion to work with Win7 32 bit, I will be grateful.
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netphilou31
New Contributor II
985 Views
Hi,

I did not noticed the problem before because of the following reason. Since CVF version 5 (I think that it was Digital Visual Fortran at that time), I was using the WinTabs addin with VisualStudio (addin that add tabs feature to the IDE, very helpful). However I noticed that with version 6 it crashed the application. I have been able to look at the addin code thanks to the original developer and found that it was expected to work also with MSDEV.exe. Thus, I fixed the problem by simply making a copy of "DFDEV.exe" and renaming it "MSDEV.exe" (in the same directory as he original file) and since I worked with MSDEV instead of DFDEV !. I went a little bit further by changing all the references to DEFEV.exe in the registry to MSDEV.exe but I don't think that it is necessary to go so far.I understand that it is a little bit complicated but it works !

Best Regards,
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emreka82
Beginner
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Thanks for your suggestion Phil., now I changed DFDEV to MSDEV but I get a new error:

Linking...
LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file "Debug/xflowc.exe"
Error executing link.exe.

I think that it is because of NOT changing the references. Then...How can I change these references ? That is the question. If I can change them and if it works, I will be the happiest programmer !

Emre
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netphilou31
New Contributor II
985 Views
Emre,

I am note sure that the linker error you've got is caused by the fact that the references are incorrect. I think that you should look at another cause (it seems that the linker cannot create the target executable or that the target directory is locked). Anyway If you want to change the references, simply browse the registry (using he Find dialog) and change any DFDEV.exe occurence by MSDEV.exe (except for the AppPath section where I have kept the DFDEV.exe key but created a new one named MSDEV.exe key with the same content except for the name). I know that modifying the registry can be dangerous so be very carreful when doing it (or create a backup before).

Good luck !

Phil.
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emreka82
Beginner
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Thanks a million Phil, I did what you are saying, exactly. Now my project runs and compiles smoothly in Win7 32 bit. Hopefully it will continue after a fresh PC restart. Thank you all.

Emre
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