Improvements in Store for Linux on Itanium

The Itanium Solutions Alliance today announced sponsorship of Itanium processor-specific improvements on the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) coordinated by the Gelato Federation, the global technical community dedicated to the advancement of Linux on the Itanium platform. The Alliance funding specifically supports superblock scheduling work being completed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a Gelato member. The broader effort, initiated in January 2005 by members and sponsors from both the Alliance and Gelato, and representatives from the greater GCC community, aims to deliver a GCC compiler optimized to support Itanium solutions. This is the first time GCC has been specifically tuned for the Itanium processor and its unique high-performance features. GCC is a multi-platform set of compilers for C, C++, Fortran, Objective-C, Java and other programming languages. The Itanium-based platform is unique because it relies far more on the compiler in comparison to other platforms, and GCC is the standard compiler on GNU/Linux distributions. The GCC compiler optimization improvements now underway are superblock scheduling, instruction scheduling and speculation, and memory disambiguation. These optimizations will enable developers to produce faster code for Itanium 2 processors within shorter compilation times. document.write(''); "Superblock optimization and scheduling represent decades of compiler research at UIUC and have been adopted by numerous commercial compilers, and we are thrilled to be involved with this project. Enhancing GCC performance on Itanium will automatically lead to the improvement of thousands of applications and libraries provided by Linux distributions for Itanium processors, representing a huge step for the Linux community," said Professor Wen-mei Hwu of UIUC and a member of the Gelato Steering Committee. "Itanium Solutions Alliance and Gelato representatives are working closely with the GCC community in the development process to ensure compiler improvements fit user needs for strong implementation and acceptance." GCC improvement proposals, recommended by representatives of the GCC community and members and sponsors of the Alliance and Gelato, are based on a combination of estimated benefit, effort to implement, likelihood of GCC community acceptance and Itanium optimizations already implemented by other compilers. Developers can educate themselves about the upcoming GCC changes and other Itanium solutions from both groups at upcoming events. The Alliance, formed to accelerate the development and adoption of Itanium solutions, and Gelato are showcasing Itanium solutions at this week's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco through member technical demonstrations. Developers can access presentations and hands-on training at the Gelato ICE: Itanium Conference & Expo on April 23-26 and Alliance Developer Days on April 26-28, collocated events being held in San Jose, Calif. Gelato ICE will feature more than 50 presentations, 10 specifically on the GCC compiler, and an Alliance-sponsored keynote. The no-cost Alliance Developer Days event will provide hands-on training, technical assistance and industry-leading tools to facilitate porting of targeted applications to Itanium platforms. "There has been immense interest from developers to optimize GCC to support the Itanium platform, and with this now underway developer training and information sharing is vital," said Kirk Skaugen, Intel's representative to the Itanium Solutions Alliance Steering Committee. "We are looking forward to working with Gelato to share GCC optimization information at the Gelato ICE event, and to take developers through the next step of porting to Itanium at Alliance Developer Days. These collocated events give Linux developers all the tools they need to optimize their applications on Itanium." Gelato ICE registration costs range from $95-$320 depending on membership status. Registration for the Developer Days portion is free, and after completion of the course developers will receive free and discounted tools and hardware from Itanium Solutions Alliance member companies. Information on both events is available at www.gelato.org/meeting. About The Itanium Solutions Alliance The Itanium Solutions Alliance was formed by leading enterprise and technical solutions providers to work together towards a common objective of transitioning the world of proprietary computing platforms to open, industry standard solutions based on Itanium architecture. Together with leading enterprise software and hardware providers, the Alliance is dedicated to accelerating the adoption and ongoing development of Itanium solutions. Its membership comprises some of the most influential companies in the computing industry. For more information visit www.itaniumsolutionsalliance.org.
About The Gelato Federation The Gelato Federation is the global technical community dedicated to advancing Linux on the Intel Itanium architecture through collaboration, education, and leadership. Gelato members are suppliers and users of Linux/Itanium processor technology with a shared goal of producing open-source solutions for academic, government, and industrial high-performance computing users. The Gelato portal serves as the primary channel for Federation business and collaborations. Information about Gelato members' software and solutions are available through the portal, and the community is welcome to participate and contribute.

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