effect of Compaq deal with Intel

[durisinm]

I read some news that Compaq is selling its Alpha chip technology to Intel and plans to switch to the use of the Intel's Itanium processor for all of its computing products and operating systems (OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX, and Nonstop Himalaya[?]). What, if any, effect will this have on Compaq's Fortran (and C and...) compilers?

Mike Durisin

[Steven_L_Intel1]

The major impact will be that these compilers will come, at least in part, from Intel. The details are still being worked out, and when we have things nailed down a bit more, we'll be sure to let folks know. I do know that the Fortran team is planned to be hired by Intel over the next couple of months, and we're excited about the opportunities in store.

For our customers, this should be overall good news - you'll continue to get our quality compilers, with additional "best of both worlds" technologies.

This announcement comes at an awkward time, as most Compaq US offices, including ours, will be closed all next week. You'll see more on this over the coming weeks.

You can read the official announcement here.

Steve

[durisinm]

I hope I'm not being too nosy, but what does the Fortran team perceive as being better working for Intel rather than Compaq?

Doesn't Intel have its own Fortran (and other???) compiler? Anyone care to speculate on how it and CVF will be combined?

Mike

[Steven_L_Intel1]

The intent is to combine the features and advantages of the two products, so you have a product that is Visual Fortran with the special optimizations,features and tools that Intel has for their compiler.

Steve

[durisinm]

I read that Compaq's switch to the IA-64 chip in its hardware won't be complete until 2004, but porting of the VMS, Tru64 UNIX, and Nonstop OSes to run on IA-64 is starting right away. What's the current schedule for availability of Compaq's Fortran (and other) compilers for IA-64?

I don't think that everyone will be doing 64-bit computing by 2004. Will CVF for 32-bit Intel, AMD, and other CPUs still be available, too?

Mike Durisin

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I can't speak to schedules, but here is the general idea.

1. Compaq will continue to sell and support CVF 6.x - a 6.6 update is coming in August. (We, the Compaq Fortran team, will continue to provide the support as we do now.)

2. We will develop a "next-generation" IA-32 product that combines the best of the Compaq and Intel products, based on the Compaq "front-end" This product will be sold by Intel under the Intel brand name. We expect this to happen in mid-2002, though as I said above, schedules are far from firm. We'll work to make sure the upgrade path for users of both the Compaq and Intel compilers is as smooth as possible. I would expect us to continue to offer an IA-32 compiler as long as there is reasonable demand for it - but I can't predict the future.

3. We'll also develop an IA-64 compiler based on the CVF front-end. As I've written here before, we have a Compaq IA-64 compiler in beta test now, but we've decided to put that on the shelf for now, as the current Intel IA-64 compiler generates better code. Again, a merged-technologies product is in store for the future.

Compaq has a lot of excellent code generation and optimization technology too - Compaq and Intel will share their technologies with the intent of producing best-of-both-worlds compilers in the future.

Steve (who shouldn't be responding here, because he's technically on vacation, but...)

[durisinm]

Participants in this Fortran forum have enjoyed great input and support from Compaq personnel (mostly from Steve Lionel). That's happened even though the "official" purpose of the forum is supposed to be for Compaq Fortran users to get help from fellow users. Heck, Steve even answers some questions when he's on vacation.

Will a Fortran forum still exist as Compaq's compilers transmogrify and meld with Intel's? Will we get the same level of support from Compaq or Intel compiler engineers? Might we hope for even better forum software with improved threading and other features?

Mike

[Steven_L_Intel1]

This forum will continue, to the best of my knowledge, and Fortran engineers, such as myself, will continue to participate. I don't know what Intel offers in a similar vein, but I'll push for some sort of similar (but better, I hope) place where users can exchange ideas and questions.

The level of support you get should not change - it may even improve!

Steve