Intel(R) Fortran Compiler for Linux*
Release Notes - 6.0 Beta

[Overview] [What's New] [Package Contents] [Documentation] [System Requirements] [Installation Notes] [Known Limitations] [Resolved Issues] [Technical Support and Feedback]

Overview

This is a Beta version of the Intel(R) compilers for Linux*, and is meant to be used as an evaluation tool and source of feedback only. This product provides tools for Linux* software developers to create applications to run on Itanium(TM)-based systems and IA-32 systems. It consists of the following:

The Intel(R) Fortran compiler for IA-32 based applications: ifc.
The Intel(R) Fortran compiler for Itanium-based applications: efc.
The Linux Application Debugger: ldb.
The Itanium Assembler to produce Itanium-based applications: ias.
The product documentation.

The Intel(R) Architecture Performance Training Center provides interactive tutorials, documentation, and code samples that teach Intel architecture and software optimization techniques for Intel architecture processors. It is not part of this product, but is available at http://www.intel.com/software/products/itc/index.htm. The tutorials run only on IA32 systems.

The Intel(R) Performance Library Suite provides a set of routines optimized for various Intel processors. It is also not part of this product, but is available at http://www.intel.com/software/products/perflib/index.htm.

The paper, Optimizing Applications with the Intel(R) C++ and Fortran Compilers for Linux* , explains how to use the Intel compilers to optimize for the Pentium(R) 4 and Itanium processors and is available at http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/f50/linux. Additional information on the Intel Software Development Products is available at http://www.intel.com/software/products/.

The following list has additional comments on the compiler package. See the Known Limitations section for additional information.

The Intel Fortran compilers for Linux are not binary compatible with the GNU G77 Fortran compiler as the compilers use different run-time libraries. Additional details on the compatibility are available at http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/f50/linux. The Intel Fortran compilers are binary compatible with C language object files created with either the Intel C++ compilers for Linux or the GNU GCC compiler. See the User's Guide under the section Mixing C and Fortran for details.

What's New

The compiler has improved optimizations available with the -O3 compiler option, better OpenMP* support and auto-parallelization available with the -parallel compiler option.

POSIX threaded programs that require a large stack size may not run correctly on some versions of Linux (2MB for RedHat 6.2 on IA-32, 8MB for RedHat 7.1 for Itanium Processor Family) because of hard-coded stack size limits in some versions of the Linux POSIX threads libraries. See the section [Known Limitations] for additional details.

Version 6.0 of the Intel compilers for Linux does not include a cross compiler for Itanium-based applications. Native compilers, that run on a computer with an Itanium processor, are available. Direct object generation is now enabled in the compiler for Itanium-based applications, that is, the compiler will directly generate object files without automatically generating an intermediate assembly file and subsequently invoke the assembler. Direct object generation may be disabled using use the compiler option '-use_asm'.

It is no longer necessary to run a script to create several new environment variables at the start of each session. The only required variables are PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH, which may be updated by the .login file. Refer to section: "Compiler Environment and configuration scripts" for details.

Package Contents

Intel Fortran Compiler for IA-32 Based Applications

The Intel Fortran compiler for IA-32 based applications contains the following components:

Intel Fortran Compiler for Linux for IA-32 applications: ifc.
Linux Application Debugger for IA-32 based applications: ldb
The product documentation.

Intel Fortran Compiler for Itanium-Based Applications

The Intel Fortran compiler for Itanium-based applications contains the following components:

Native Fortran compiler for Itanium-based applications: efc. The native compiler runs on a computer with an Itanium processor.
Linux Application Debugger for Itanium-based applications: ldb
Itanium Assembler to produce Itanium-based applications: ias.
The product documentation.

Documentation

The compiler and assembler documentation is presented in HTML format with full navigation, search, and hypertext capabilities and is viewable with your web browser. The documents also have PDF versions for easier printing via acroread*, the Acrobat* Reader for Linux.

The documentation is installed in the <install-dir>/compiler60/docs directory. Also, an HTML index document can be found at <install-dir>/compiler60/docs/fcompindex.htm. For information on the GNU glibc C language library, documentation can be obtained from the Linux OS vendor or from the GNU web site, www.gnu.org.

Viewing HTML Documentation

To view the HTML documentation with the Netscape* browser, the following options need to be enabled:

Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced-->enable Java
Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced-->enable JavaScript
Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced-->enable stylesheets

Viewing PDF Documentation Files

You can read the PDF files using the xpdf utility or install acroread, the Acrobat* Reader for Linux. It is recommended to view the PDF documentation with Acrobat running within Netscape as this provides additional navigation features. To enable Netscape to start acroread, acroread needs to be installed in a directory searched by your PATH environment variable and you need to edit the browser's preferences. NOTE: If acroread isn't configured correctly, you can overwrite the PDF files, requiring you to reinstall them. If improperly configured, the acroread browser may prompt you to Save-As file, which if you click OK can overwrite the PDF documentation files. Perform these steps needed to update your preferences for acroread:

Edit --> Preferences --> Navigator --> Applications--> new
Description: Portable Document Format
MIMEType: application/pdf
Suffixes: pdf
Application: acroread %s

Another method to configure acroread is to add the following entry in the file .mailcap in your home directory:

application/pdf; acroread %s

Depending on your version of the Netscape browser, you might need to disable (turn OFF) the "Automatically load images" option or the browser will freeze when you open the HTML documentation files, this means that you will then need to click on the images in the documentation if you want to see them while paging through the documentation with the browser. Turn OFF this option by clicking on: Edit-->Preferences-->Advanced-->Automatically load images and other data types.

System Requirements

IA-32 Processor System Requirements

A computer based on a Pentium processor or subsequent IA-32 based processor. (Pentium 4 processor recommended)
128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended).
100 MB of disk space
Linux system with glibc 2.2.2 or 2.2.4 and kernel 2.4. The compiler has been validated with Red Hat Linux versions 7.1 and 7.2.

Itanium Processor System Requirements

Note, the native compilers for Itanium-based systems run on an Itanium-based system.

A computer with an Itanium processor.
256 MB of RAM
100 MB of disk space
Linux system with glibc 2.2.2 or 2.2.3 and kernel 2.4. The compiler has been validated with Red Hat Linux version 7.1 for Intel Itanium-based systems.

Installation Notes

This section describes the installation of the IA-32 compiler and followed by a section on how to install the native compiler for Itanium-based applications.

Installing IA-32 Compiler

Perform the following steps to install the IA-32 compiler.

Download the compiler package.
To install the compiler package, performing the following instructions:
1. untar the compiler package in a directory to which you have write access.
2. Become the root user, needed to run the rpm command, and execute the install script in the directory where the tar file was extracted.
  ./install
  If you do not have access to the root account, it is possible to install the compiler without root access by manually unpacking the RPM files with rpm2cpio and editing the ifcvars.sh (.csh) and efcvars.sh (.csh) files to include the directory where the compiler is installed. The install script automates this procedure.
3. The Intel software products already installed will be listed, followed by a menu of products to install which includes:
  - Intel Compiler for 32-bit applications
  - Linux Application Debugger
4. Select a package to install. All necessary packages needed to use the product will also be installed. If an RPM package has already been installed, the install script will report this and say that the installation failed. It will then continue to the next RPM package that needs to be installed to use the product. The default RPM options -U --replacefiles are recommended to force the update of existing files. The recommended installation directory is /opt/intel.
5. After installation, the Intel packages installed will be redisplayed, followed by a redisplay of the install menu. Enter 'x' to exit the install script.
Setup the environment for the compiler by sourcing the script ifcvars.sh (.csh) for IA-32 based applications:
source <install-dir>/compiler60/ia32/bin/ifcvars.sh (.csh)
Install the FLEXlm license in the top level /licenses directory, the default location is /opt/intel/licenses. The beta license is available for download from Intel Premier Support at https://premier.intel.com/. Additional instructions on using the FLEXlm license manager can be found at http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/f50/linux.
Run the compiler.

Installing the Native Compiler for Itanium-based Applications

Perform these steps to install the native compiler for Itanium-based applications.

Download the compiler package.
To install the compiler package, performing the following instructions:
1. First, untar the compiler package in a directory to which you have write access.
2. Become the root user, needed to run the rpm command, and execute the install script.
  ./install
  If you do not have access to the root account, it is possible to install the compiler without root access by unpacking the RPM files with rpm2cpio and editing the ifcvars.sh (.csh) and efcvars.sh (.csh) files to include the directory where the compiler is installed. The install script automates this procedure.
3. The Intel software products already installed will be listed, followed by a menu of products to install which includes:
  - Intel Compiler for Itanium architecture
  - Linux Application Debugger
4. Select a package to install. All necessary packages needed to use the product will also be installed. If a RPM package has already been installed, the install script will report this and say that the installation failed. It will then continue to the next RPM package that needs to be installed to use the product. The default RPM options -U --replacefiles are recommended to force the update of existing files. The recommended installation directory is /opt/intel.
5. After installation, the Intel packages installed will be redisplayed, followed by a redisplay of the install menu. Enter 'x' to exit the install script.
Setup the environment for the compiler by sourcing the script efcvars.sh (.csh) for Itanium-based applications:
source <install-dir>/compiler60/ia64/bin/efcvars.sh (.csh)
Install the FLEXlm license in the top level /licenses directory, the default location is /opt/intel/licenses. The beta license is available for download from Intel Premier Support at https://premier.intel.com/. Additional instructions on using the FLEXlm license manager can be found at http://www.intel.com/software/products/compilers/f50/linux.
Run the compiler.

Compiler Environment and configuration scripts

The tools in this product rely on the environment variables PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The variable PATH should be set to the location of the installed binaries. The variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH should be set to the location of the libraries installed with the Intel compilers (../lib relative to bin). This variable is used when executing an application built with the Intel compilers using shared objects, (i.e., unless the "-static" option is specified in the link command). It is strongly recommended that you set the variables PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH in your login script (.login file). The installation script (install) creates compiler environment script files that set these variables; however, once the variables are set in the ".login" file there is no need to run the script files for each session.

Source the script to setup the compiler environment:

source <install-dir>/compiler60/ia32/bin/ifcvars.sh(.csh)
To produce IA-32 applications.
source <install-dir>/compiler60/ia64/bin/efcvars.sh(.csh)
To produce Itanium-based applications.

The installation program also creates compiler configuration files named <install-dir>/compiler60/ia32/bin/ifc.cfg and <install-dir>/compiler60/ia64/bin/efc.cfg that contain common settings for all compilations. You can edit these files to add additional default options. Note, if you install a compile update package, you need to save the configuration file if you have modified it to another filename so that the installation doesn't overwrite your modified file.

Please register for support after you install this product. See Technical Support and Feedback for registration instructions.

Installation Warnings

Installation Warning for RPM 4.0.2

The installation script, install, cannot install to a non-default directory when running RPM 4.0.2. This is the version of RPM that is distributed with Red Hat 7.1. For this reason, you currently must install the compilers in the default directory, /opt/intel when running RPM 4.0.2. Please see the FAQ's for the Fortran Linux compiler at http://support.intel.com/support/performancetools/fortran/v5/linux for more information on this issue.

Installation Warning for Intel C++ and Fortran compilers in Different Directories

It is not recommended to install the Intel C++ compiler for Linux and the Intel Fortran compiler for Linux in different directories The two compiler packages share common files and the default RPM options in the install script prevent the compilers to work correctly when installed to different directories. For this reason, it is recommended to install the compilers in the same directory. However, the compilers should still be untar-ed into separate directories.

Uninstalling the compilers

To uninstall the compilers, you need to become the root user to run RPM. An uninstall script is provided simplify uninstalling the compiler packages.

To uninstall the Intel compilers for IA-32 applications, run the script in <install-dir>/compiler60/ia32/bin/uninstall
To uninstall the Intel compilers for Itanium-based applications, run the script in <install-dir>/compiler60/ia64/bin/uninstall

Known Limitations

POSIX threaded programs that require a large stack size may not run correctly on some versions of Linux (2MB for RedHat 6.2 on IA-32, 8MB for RedHat 7.1 on Itanium Processor Family) because of hard-coded stack size limits in some versions of the Linux POSIX threads libraries.

These limits also apply to OpenMP programs (-openmp) and automatically generated parallel programs (-xparallel) with the Intel compilers, because the Intel compilers use the POSIX threads library to implement OpenMP based and automatically generated parallelism. Threaded programs that exceed the stack space limit usually experience segmentation violations or addressing errors.

To eliminate these limitations, please obtain glibc version 2.2.3 or later for IA-32 and glibc version 2.2.4 or later for Itanium Processor Family. When using systems with these libraries, a stack size limit must be set in the shell to obtain the required stacksize (e.g. "limit stacksize x" for /bin/csh and "ulimit -s x" for /bin/bash, where "x" is the number of Kilobytes of memory to use for the stack). A shell stacksize limit of "unlimited" does not work - it causes a fixed hard limit to be imposed, as described above. Setting an explicit limit for the shell stacksize with these newer systems allows a program to use an arbitrarily large stack size. Further, for Itanium Processor Family, the stack size should be set two twice the required stack space for your program, because half of the specified stack space is used for the register save area.

Please click on the appropriate link below to see additional notes and known limitations in the latest version of the compiler.

Intel Fortran Compiler to produce IA-32 applications. Note, this file is available only if the compiler for IA-32 applications is installed.
Intel Fortran Compiler to produce Itanium-based applications. Note, this file is available only if the compiler for Itanium-based applications is installed.
The Linux Application Debugger: ldb. Note, this file is available only if ldb is installed.

Resolved Customer Support Issues

Please click on the appropriate link below to see which issues have been resolved in the latest version of the compiler.

Intel Fortran Compiler to produce IA-32 applications. Note, this file is available only if the compiler for IA-32 applications is installed.
Intel Fortran Compiler to produce Itanium-based applications. Note, this file is available only if the compiler for Itanium-based applications is installed.
The Linux Application Debugger: ldb. . Note, this file is available only if ldb is installed.

Technical Support and Feedback

Your feedback is very important to us. To receive technical support for the tools provided in this product and technical information including FAQ's and compiler updates, you need to be registered for an Intel Premier Support account on our secure web site, https://premier.intel.com/.

If you have an existing Premier Support account for the " Beta Intel Fortran Compiler, Linux*" you do not need to re-register. If you currently have a Premier Support account for any other product, or do not have a Premier Support account at all, you must register for access to support for this product. You can register for an Intel Premier Support account at http://support.intel.com/support/go/fortran/QuAD.htm. Compiler support information, including top technical issues, is available at http://support.intel.com/support/performancetools/fortran.

Submitting Issues

To submit an issue via the Intel Premier Support website, perform the following steps:

Go to https://premier.intel.com/. You need to have Java* and Javascript* enabled in your web browser to submit an issue.
Type in your Login and Password. Both are case-sensitive.
Click the "Submit" button.
Read the Confidentiality Statement and click the "I Accept" button.
Click on the "Go" button next to the "Product" drop-down list.
Click on the "Submit Issue" link in the left navigation bar.
Choose "Initiatives, technologies & tools" from the "Product Type" drop-down list.
If this is a software or license-related issue choose " Beta Intel(R) Fortran Compiler, Linux* " from the "Product Name" drop-down list. If this is a hardware-related issue with an Itanium-based system choose "Workstation SDV (Itanium(TM) Processor)" or "Server SDV (Itanium(TM) Processor)" from the "Product Name" drop-down list.
Enter your question and complete the fields in the windows that follow to successfully submit the issue.

Please follow these guidelines when forming your problem report or product suggestion:

Describe your difficulty or suggestion. For problem reports please be as specific as possible, so we may reproduce the problem. For compiler problem reports, please include the compiler options and a small test case.
Describe your system configuration information. Be sure to include specific information that may be applicable to your setup: operating system, versions of glibc and kernel, name and version number of installed applications, and anything else that may be relevant to helping us address your issue.
Include the package ID for the component your support issue concerns. A package ID utility is available, icid. When icid is executed, the package ID is written to standard output. See the Installation section for details on setting up the compiler environment.
If you have an error installing the compiler package, create a Customer support issue on the Intel Premier Support website and select install error for the issue type. See Technical Support and Feedback for instructions on how to register for support. If you were not able to install the compiler or cannot run icid to determine the package ID, enter the filename you downloaded as the package ID and explain in the issue that you were not able to run icid.

A technical support engineer will respond within one (1) Intel business day.

Copyright and Legal Information

Intel, Pentium and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others

Intel(R) Fortran Compiler for Linux* Release Notes - 6.0 Beta

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