编译点滴

Pathscale刚刚发布了EKOPath4(http://www.pathscale.com/)

EKOPath4的新特性

• Significant improvements in performance and robustness(性能健壮性)
• Support for latest Intel® 64 & AMD64 processors（新处理器支持）
• Support for SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, SSE4A & AVX（新SIMD扩展支持)
• New C++ backend and GNU compatible runtime（新C++、GNU兼容的运行时库支持)
• Complete implementation of C++ STL locale library（实现C++ STL本地库)
• Reference counted basic_string using atomic locking
• Thread-safety, including iostream and locale objects(线程安全提升)
• Optimized exception handling（例外控制优化)
• Optimized C and C++ debugging support（C/C++t调试支持优化)
• More Fortran 2003 features（Fortran 2003支持)
• Significantly improved IPA (inter-procedural analysis)（IPA分析提升)
• Runtime improvements（运行时改进)
• New PathAS assembler（新的PathAS汇编器）
• Major overhaul of PathDB for better multi-core support
• Hundreds of bug fixes and much more..

性能对比

高性能编译器最重要的是性能，Phoronix给出了针对某些例子的对比，EKOPath4.0的性能提升。如下，从这几个例子来看，EKOPath4.0的性能比GCC4.5高不少。

另外，Proronix也计划自己编译EKOPath编译器，并综合对比LLVM、EKOPath、GCC和Open64。《编译点滴》也会时刻关注，并第一时间刊登相关内容。

EKOPath4相关链接

• 直接安装二进制版本Pathscale： http://c591116.r16.cf2.rackcdn.com/ekopath/nightly/Linux/ekopath-2011-06-12-installer.run
• 编译器源码： git clone git://github.com/path64/compiler.git
• 调试器(PathDB）源码  git clone git://github.com/path64/debugger.git

Pathscale简介

Pathscale是一家专注高性能编译器解决方案的公司，包括GPU和X86平台的高性能计算，以卖相关服务为主。CTO是Christopher Bergström。Fred Chow是技术方面的领导人。感兴趣的读者可以在#pathscale@freenode IRC上了解更多。 对于中国用户，Pathscale的CTO表示，如果感兴趣的人多，可以单独开#pathscale-cn频道服务,可以先在#pathscale IRC里和他说一声。   虽然EKOPath4自称开源，也的确能从上面的链接中找到编译器，调试器的源代码。但是也有人指出Pathscale一直承诺的开源兑现的力度很不够。下面的这段评论来自这里，

Notes: Before continuing, yes, the open-sourcing of EKOPath 4 is what in recent days on Phoronix has been codenamed Dirndl as the results have been very impressive. Some Phoronix readers were sharp to figure it out within the forums and those following me on Twitter. Originally this open-source announcement was to happen two weeks ago, but since then there have been multiple delays for various reasons. While some Phoronix readers figured out EKOPath 4 was being open-sourced in advance, in some development circles this was already known for a number of days. Three weeks ago, Christopher Bergström (PathScale’s CTO), wrote to the Illumos development list and publicly dropped the EKOPath 4.0.10 binary and said "There will be a more broad and related announcement next week, but PathScale promises to continue providing EKOPath 4 as a free download for Solaris and family." On the Illumos IRC that day, the free EKOPath was again brought up. On a related note, back in April news broke that PathScale was working to develop a "CUDA killer" for the GPU. Back then it was promised it would be open-source and freely licensed.  

Open64和Pathscale的渊源

• 2000年SGI将其 利用GPL协议MIPS Pro64编译器开源
• 2001年University of Delaware 继续维护该编译器，并将其更名为Open64
• 2001-2004年，计算所与Intel合作为安腾处理器基于Open64开发ORC项目，即Open Research Coompiler。
• 2003年，Pathscale开始将该编译器移植到X86平台，并着手优化
• 随后的几年里，Open64和Pathscale的代码相互移植了很多。
• 最近，Pathscale升级到了GPLv3，而Open64还采用GPLv2,使得两者的代码越走越远