New Parallel Compiler by Intel

[hobold]

Intel has released a new data parallel compiler as open source software. Currently int runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux and produces SSE code. The programming model is similar to OpenCL or CUDA, but there is no setup overhead. Parallel routines can be called from sequential code and vice versa. I have not tried it myself, but the early adopters seem to find it practically useful. Check out

http://ispc.github.com/

[ker2x]

yep, i saw that (and forgot to link it here). i'll test it soon

[cbuchner1]

yep, i saw that (and forgot to link it here). i'll test it soon

Looks like a solid alternative to hand crafting SSE or AVX code. I wonder if this compiler will become commercial in the future.

[hobold]

Intel uses a BSD license, so they certainly can incorporate the code into commercial projects. However, it is a true open source license, so a free fork could theoretically be maintained by a community even in that case. I guess that Intel has more to gain from a widely available compiler that makes their processors shine, though.