Intel announced two new compilers for Mac OS X on Tuesday, the Intel C++ Compiler and Fortran Professional Editions, v. 10. The new compilers offer enhanced support for multi-core processors.
The new compilers combine highly optimized compilers, performance libraries, and the Intel Threading Building Blocks.
Intel outlined the features of the new compilers:
- Automatic support for accelerating program performance on Intelis latest multi-core processors.
- Applications containing 3-D graphics or video are automatically accelerated through the use of vectors via Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE), including the latest SSE 4 instructions.
- Application performance is accelerated by multi-core processors through the use of multiple threads.
Intel pointed out that "Combining the use of vectors and threads and integrating them with a technology known as loop transformation generates greater performance on multi-core processors without requiring developers to rewrite their code."
System requirements include an Intel Core Microarchitecture system, 1 GB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later, Xcode 2.4.1, and gcc 4.0.
The new compilers are available immediately and priced at from US$599 to $1599. Upgrades from the prior version are available via Intel resellers. Intel also announced a special student edition that combines the compilers and several performance analysis tools at a discount.